


Nine years

by Angelscythe



Series: Nine Years [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Glenn Fraldarius Lives, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23353294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelscythe/pseuds/Angelscythe
Summary: Since he is a child, Dimitri always has a crush for Glenn. His dearest wish is for him not to die... He whispers it to him at the moment they got torn apart by the War.Glenn can't die.Glenn can't leave him alone.And yet...Nine years later, a ghost come back to him. A Ghost? An Imposter? Or is he really coming back in his life?
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Glenn Fraldarius, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Glenn Fraldarius, Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Glenn Fraldarius & Rodrigue Achille Fraldarius, Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier, Glenn Fraldarius & Sylvain Jose Gautier
Series: Nine Years [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752589
Comments: 12
Kudos: 13





	1. Don't die...

**Author's Note:**

> Hi y'all!!!  
> This is a fic inspired byt @Eggyankee's lovely a rt (and a lot of her tweet) I became obsessed by one of her concept lately and just couldn't stop my fingers!  
> This one in particular => https://twitter.com/eggyankee/status/1219515207095144449 <=  
> Please, go support her (in every kind of way) and blow her love!!
> 
> Also, in those time, don't forget to stay inside, check on your beloved and as always, stay hydrated and remember you a re awesome!! Someone loves you and whatever you have planned to do (except if it's illegal) you can do it, I believe in you!!
> 
> Also sorry for all the mistakes, english isn't my first language and I have dislexia...

“Felix, Felix, Felix!”

“DIMAAAAAAAAAA!!”

Felix shrieked with joy and dashed toward his friend. Which grabbed him and made him swirl in the air, making him laugh. Dimitri was just ten years old and he was so strong! Before, it was Sylvain who did that to him but that time he started to cry because Sylvain had a broken arm and had been hurt while trying, Dimitri wanted to make him smile. Them smile. They all have been surprised when Felix literally flew in the airs, threw by the young Prince. It was two years and half before and it was the day they realized what strength Dimitri had…

Felix was laughing, hugging his friend as he was brought down. But he was so tiny, his feet were still dangling in the cold air of Faerghus.

“I’m so happy to see you agaiiiiin! You stay for long?” Felix wondered.

“Not for very long… Papa wanted to see your papa,” Dimitri replied.

He moved down his arms, putting his friend down. But he didn’t stop the hug neither. It was so good to see his friends. At any time!

Their parents were all always so busy and it wasn’t as common for them to see each other. Felix had learned to write and to read just to drown them under letters and presents. He always was so happy to have a letter back. But the best was now, when they could hug each other. When he stopped to feel alone…

Not that he could be alone when he had the best brother of the World! And none of his friends would protest. Certainly not Sylvain. In fact… certainly not Dimitri.

“Is your brother there?” he asked with red cheeks.

Felix was used to red cheeks. With such a cold time! He removed hi scarf to roll it around his neck.

“He is training! He taught me an amazing trick!”

Felix started to make mouth sound as he showed the said trick asking to swirl on yourself, jump, slid from up to down.

“It is useful against big adversaries! He said it’s better to use it jumping from a big stone or a stump… Wait!! I’ll show you!! But I see none here…” Felix moved on his tip toe from his heels, back and fore. “Perhaps from your back!”

Dimitri lifted him. “You can use my back any time!” He smiled to him. “Buuuuut… can we go see him?” he wondered with his cheeks even redder.

“We can!”

Felix took his hand, making him run after him.

In fact, he didn’t know if they really could. But he knew his brother always accepted him. Whatever he was doing. Training, studying, taking a bit of time for him? At the second he was arriving in his view, Glenn just forgot everything he was doing to lift him in his arms and he started to smile. He remembered this time where Glenn and his father where yelling and when he entered the room, because of a nightmare, all Glenn’s anger had vanished and he was taking care of him, making sure his sleep would be empty of nightmare this time…

They ran and ran until they arrived in the training room of the domain.

Glenn wasn’t training. Because he was talking with his father and the King himself.

“Glenn!”

Felix dashed toward his brother. Who immediately knelt to grab him and hug him, smiling.

“Glenn…” Rodrigue sighed.

“It is fine,” Lambert laughed. “I know he can’t resist to his little brother. And for sure, look at those cheeks!”

“No!”

Felix quickly shoved his head in his brother’s chest, protecting his cheeks. One of the favorite things of the King was to grab those cheeks and squeeze them.

Dimitri approached too, watching them, looking at his friend and looking at Glenn. He was blushing. Glenn was always so cool. Since a few weeks, he always wanted Glenn to lift him like he would have done with Felix. Receive a kiss on his forehead too…

“Eh Dimitri!” Glenn smiled to him.

“H… He… Hello, Glenn,” he blushed even more. “You… are good?”

“Yes, thank you? And you, little Prince?”

“Yes,” he blushed.

He wanted to approach and hold out his arms to him. But Glenn would never let go on Felix and Felix would never stop to Koala grip him.

“Your father just told me I finally received a promotion!” Glenn smiled.

“Glenn,” Rodrigue groaned.

“What?”

“The King Lambert just gave you the honor to make you Knight,” the man said.

“Daaad…”

Rodrigue gave him a strict look.

“So cool!” Dimitri swooned, his eyes full of stars.

“You’re the best!” Felix sung, snuggling in his arms.

“Let the kid breath Rodrigue! It’s fine!” Lambert tapped Glenn’s head. Being only166 cm, he sure was way tinier than the King who was so Big by the acts, the heart and the tall. “You’re a bit short but I trust you by my side. And my son’s side when the moment will come. I’m sure you would protect him as well as you would protect our little Felix.”

“I would protect Felix with my life,” Glenn said.

“Dimitri,” Rodrigue corrected.

“Yes, too, of course,” the young Knight sighed. “And I will grew!” he added to Lambert, smiling widely.

Dimitri dashed to Glenn, jumping at his legs and making him fall on the floor. Instinctively, his arms closed more around his little brother who hiccupped in his arms and his eyes went on the young Prince who was crying harder than his little brother.

“Don’t die Glenn!! I don’t want you to die!”

Glenn hugged the young Prince, caressing his hair and pressing a kiss on his forehead.

“I will not die, Dimitri. Don’t worry…”

**_Three years later_ **

“G… Gl… Glenn?”

Dimitri was shaking in the embrace of the man. How often he had wanted him to cradle him in his arms that way? How often he had been jealous of Felix? And now… he was watching him, the smell, the clothes vanishing… the blood streaming as Glenn hiccupped.

Dimitri moved his hand, trying to reach him but scared himself as he noticed the flesh, the black color his body was taking. And the smell… the smell of cooked meal? Usually, he would have been so glad, that just meant the food was about to be served. But now…

On the battlefield… with Glenn who already had a spear across his belly?!

“Gl…enn?”

“Everything is fine,” Glenn said, pressing a kiss in his little forehead.

Dimitri felt something sliding along his skin and moved his fingers… Red. They were red. The lips had let a mark of blood…

Dimitri hiccupped, watching him.

Everything had gone so fast… A mage was unleashing magic, throwing it right at him in a fire storm and Glenn just jumped to be between them. He had felt the spear across Glenn’s belly rip open his flesh but nothing grave. Especially not when, on the other hand, Glenn was…

“Glenn… You promised… You promised you wouldn’t… die…”

Glenn let out a nervous laugh, his whole body shivering as the flames still licked him.

“Guess… I lied. But you… will live…”

“Glenn!”

“Glenn!”

The fire stopped to harass him and Glenn hiccupped again, more blood sliding from his wounds. More carmines droplets falling on Dimitri’s face.

“Father…”

Glenn get up with difficulties, holding Dimitri in his arms. The spear moved in his wound and he fell his leg collapse under his weight. A hand grabbed his shoulder, preventing the fall but making him yell of pain.

“Father… brings the Prince away. I will… hold them back…”

“Glenn…”

“It is too late for me.” Glenn hiccupped again as Rodrigue took the teenager from his arms. “I have been… a horrible shield… I’m sorry father.”

“GLENN!” Dimitri yelled.

“You have been perfect. I’m so proud of you, Glenn,” Rodrigue whispered, his voice heavy of sorrow, his eyes foggy.

“GLENN!!! Come! Come with us!” Dimitri protested, tears rolling along his cheeks.

Glenn took his little hand to kiss it.

“Father… says to Felix… I’m sorry…”

Glenn forced a smile and swirled on himself, ripping off the spear from his wound and showing his face to his enemies. He will hold them back. He will fight until his last breath, the flesh open to the cold wind, the wound multiplying themselves on his body and the rage of protected those he loved filling his heart.

His lips moved down, his teeth closed… and his cheeks were streaming tears…

In the horse of Rodrigue, Dimitri was still crying. He couldn’t stop himself. As soon as he closed his eyes, the images came back.

“Please, please, please, Uncle Rodrigue…” he hiccupped.

“No,” the man said firmly.

“Please!”

“NO!”

Dimitri hiccupped again, the sob dying in his throat. He couldn’t even pronounce Glenn’s name despite the envy burning his heart.

He didn’t understand…

Glenn was Rodrigue son why wasn’t he doing something? Why was he running away like that. Everything had been so fast… the accident, the attack of the Kingdom while searching him… When Glenn had found him, in the remaining of the carriage, snuggled against the corpse of his beloved stepmother, he believed everything will be better but now… Now, Glenn was dead. Because of him… Did his father and his stepmother died because of him? How many soldiers died because of him?

His head was do dizzy. He didn’t know anymore.

He was lost.

Everything was horrible around them. So many people dying or running away for their lives. So many people fighting because they told them so…

He heard screams, sobs, begs. He saw red everywhere.

Red.

Red.

Red…

“RODRIGUE!”

“Dimitri, I…”

“Please! Look!”

Rodrigue watched at the direction the little finger was pointing. There was a child. Holding a corpse. You could see the tears roll along his cheeks as he looked up toward a Soldier about to lay down his spear on him.

The horse had slowed enough for Dimitri to jump on the floor, roll on the dust and dash toward the horrible scenery.

Rodrigue saw the weapon go toward his little Prince with horror and his hand moving out, white energy coming from it. The spear was instantly crushed in particles. Dimitri looked panicked but he turned himself toward the other child, hugging him and making sure nothing would touch him.

Rodrigue moved his horse toward the children. He noticed the corpse of a little girl between them, still hold by this child of Duscur.

“Your Grace… what should we do? We can’t let any people of Duscur…”

There was still so much around. They were fighting back, unprepared but with the strength of the heart. For their lives, for their loved ones’ lives. For the remaining of Justice you could find in this pitiful War. None of them had understood what had happened. How an army, perfectly prepared and armed, suddenly arrived on them. They were full of hate and the thirst animating them looked like bloodlust.

It was a slaughter.

How many of them hadn’t even the chance to get a weapon and had to do with their fists if they wanted to fight? Of many of them were fighting with the same weapon that had probably stolen away a live they loved…

“We leave,” Dimitri said. “Order of the future King.”

He turned his head toward them. Toward Rodrigue, and not this Soldier who was ready to kill a child that way. He could understand they tried to kill him because there was a hope that, the Prince dead, the troops would have no more leaders and would step back. But this… His father would have been so upset. His stepmother would have been outraged. He was disgusted.

“Rodrigue.”

“Yes, your Highness,” he replied.

He moved his hand to the horn at his hip, the other still hold out. His magic was preventing attack coming from around. And he blew in the horn, the grave music echoing all around on the bloody battlefield.

The troops would come back.

But that wouldn’t stop the slaughter… If the Knights wanted to open an easy path, if they were pursued…

He had to bring Dimitri in safety.

“Rodrigue, we bring him with us… Please,” he added. Dimitri looked toward the child, still in his arms. “You want to come with us?” he asked, smiling softly. “We will make sure you will feel good and be in safety.”

The child looked down, looked to the corpse in his arms and then to the Angel who had protected him…

Why?

He nodded slowly…

“Your Highness, we have to hurry,” Rodrigue commanded.

Dimitri got up and held out the hand to the other child. Who forced himself to let go on the corpse. He couldn’t bring her with him but… but he wanted it so dearly.

“My name is Dimitri,” he said. His head moved toward the battlefield, his eyes searching one last time for Glenn as they abandoned him. “And you?” he asked, watching him.

The child took his hand.

“Dedue…”


	2. Aftermath

Lying on the mud provoked by blood soaking earth, Glenn looked the sky. His opponent was dead, somewhere a bit away and now… Now his hand was on his belly and if he closed his eyes and calmed his breathing, he could pass for dead and perhaps… he would be able to crawl away.

No.

It was so ridicule…

He was dying.

If he moved his hand, the blood would stream away from his belly and he would die.

And the Sun… was setting…

It was so nice from the World to give him that to him. He knew Dimitri was alive or his father wouldn’t have blown in the horn and now he was wondering… was Felix looking the sunset, too?

A last sunset with his baby brother…

Across the World.

He could send him good vibes. He wanted to protect him… from the World and from what will fall on him soon… His baby brother, so fragile and pure… How will he…

He was so sorry.

He was so sorry!

He felt tears rolling along his cheeks. Now that was a bad thing for pretending being dead…

“Rodrigue?”

Glenn’s blue eyes moved to went on a lady standing at a few paces from him. She had a chocolate skin covered with dry blood. Her hairs turning red… In fact, his hair were so dark too… his silk skin looking as black as coffee thanks to this layer of blood.

Did she believe he was Rodrigue?

He was looking like him, after all. Except him and Felix had the hair of their mother but, well…

She had a spear in hand. She had a killer look…

She wanted to see his father? Kill him? He was about to die… He could be his father and giving her this satisfaction. She deserved it…

How many of her beloved she saw fall on the battlefield?

“Yes,” he said.

She knelt, looking at him right in the eyes.

“Your father…”

“No. I’m Rodrigue,” he protested.

Moving too much, he had a hiccup and then a cough, blood spurting from his lips.

“Your father saved our son,” she said. “Our daughter is dead… but our son will live.”

Glenn watched her in the eyes.

“Pass your arm around my shoulder,” she said.

“I c… an’t. My right… arm… refuse… to move… and my stomach…”

“Then I’ll carry you,” she said.

She leaned and passed her arms under him. When she felt blood streaming, she pressed her hand on it, her palm blocking the hemorrhage and making him groan and scream of pain.

“Courage, boy,” she said, walking with him toward the city.

If her home hadn’t been turned into ash…

**_A few days later_ **

Felix was crying in his bed.

The bed that used to have Glenn sneaking in so often so he could fall asleep, feeling loved and in security. He had sneaked so often in Glenn’s bed that his brother had started to come himself. Telling him stories, caressing his hair, pressing a kiss on his forehead. Everybody said Glenn was cold, pushing away others but he never did with him. With him, he was the Sun itself and he never felt like he was disturbing…

With his father, on the other hand…

The servants, Glenn too, said Rodrigue loved him.

He believed it.

He just couldn’t show him…

And now, he was crying in his bed.

Alone?

Not alone. Sylvain was there, moving a plush to try to cheer him up. Plush that was kissing his cheeks and saying nice things…

Felix didn’t feel better. And it was only partly because he believed Sylvain was only there because his leg was broken. It wasn’t like he could run away… The Margrave had brought him and then…

Secretly, in his little heart, Felix preferred him to stay with him. Not only because he didn’t want to be alone. It was also because… when he was at home, Sylvain always managed to hurt himself. Here, he was safe.

Felix was supposed to try to talk with him but he was crying, not caring for the kitty cat plush, nor the hand caressing his hair with tenderness.

The door opening suddenly made them jump of surprise and Felix cried even more.

“Felix!”

“Dima!” Sylvain said.

The Prince was smiling. He was almost jumping on place out of joy. That wasn’t what you could expect, knowing his whole family had been killed lately… And, even if his uncle would come soon, Rodrigue will be the one taking care of him so, not only he lost his whole family but he would be taken away from his life…

“I’m sorry! Did I frighten him?”

“Noooooooooooooooo,” Felix said, his face deep in the pillow so you couldn’t understand much.

“A bit,” Sylvain said, tugging the dark blue hair backward softly.

“I’m sorry! But! Glenn is there!”

“What?” the redhead said.

“Glenn!” Felix straightened immediately. He rubbed his cheeks stripped with tears. “Where? Where? Where? Where?!”

Dimitri pushed open the door and smiled as he moved his hands to the void between the two walls.

“What?” Sylvain said again.

“There!”

“There what?” the Gautier insisted.

“Glenn is there.”

“You… You are mean! I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU ANYMORE!!” Felix shrieked.

His tears streamed, harder, his sobs making him hiccup and his whole body was shivering.

“Are you nuts?! Dimitri?! It’s not funny!” Sylvain yelled.

“But you don’t… you don’t…?”

The little blond hiccupped. His eyes were filled with tears as Sylvain took Felix in his arms, trying to make him at least sit.

“I’m sorry!”

Dimitri swirled on his heels and ran away. Sylvain could hear the sobs.

“Dimitri! Don’t run away! I didn’t want…”

Felix passed his arms around his shoulders.

“Fuck!” Sylvain groaned.

Dimitri crossed the corridors and opened the door of his new bedroom. He walked on the impersonal rug and landed on the already done bed. There was nothing belonging to him except his tears on the pillow…

“Your Highness…”

“Why they act like that?” Dimitri cried.

“They can’t see me.”

Dimitri looked his eyes to the man caressing his back kindly. He had dreamed for such contact and now he was scared.

“Wh… why?”

“I am dead, your Highness. Remember, my little Lion? I died for you.”

“You…You are dead…”

“I am dead. That’s why you can see me and only you,” he said, pressing his finger on his nose. “It is your punishment.”

“My punishment?” Dimitri repeated, his tears still rolling along his cheeks. “I’m happy to see you…”

“Haanw…” Glenn passed his hands on his cheeks, smiling to him. “I’m happy my death can make you happy!”

The tone… was frightening.

But also… seeing Glenn…

Seeing Glenn…

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I wanted you to live. You said…”

“Don’t shame me, Dimitri. That’s mean.”

“But I didn’t…”

Dimitri hiccupped when he heard a cry of pain. It wasn’t coming from Glenn though. The young man watched him with a smirk, his cheek in one hand, his legs crossed and the other hand caressing his back in a soothing way.

“FUCK!”

Sylvain.

Dimitri rubbed his cheeks and got up, shivering on his legs. He walked to the door, pushing it open and crossed the threshold. He saw Sylvain, his back against the wall and breathing with difficulties.

“Sylvain! You shouldn’t move with your broken leg!”

“I’m sorry, Dimitri! I didn’t want to…” He hiccupped and let his body fall on the floor. “I didn’t want to yell on you and make you cry! I was worry for Felix but I’m worry for you too,” he swore. “I love you too.”

Dimitri walked toward him, sniffing.

“I love you, Sylvain. I didn’t want to hurt you… or Felix. Is he fine?”

“He is crying…” Sylvain closed his eyes. “I can’t do anything anyway…”

Dimitri approached him and snuggled against him, pressing his head on his chest. Sylvain was a bit surprised but he hugged him, pressing his cheek against his mellow and soft hair.

“Dima… why you said that?”

“Will you… believe me if I said I saw him?”

“Yes… You miss him… You daydreamed probably,” he replied. “You’re sad…”

“Are you? Glenn was nice with you too.”

“Yay… But you, Felix, Ingrid… you all need me. So…”

“Who is taking care of you?” Dimitri asked.

“Uuuh… No one but that’s fine?”

“That’s fine?”

“Yep!”

Sylvain hugged him a bit more. At this exact moment, he wondered if he could manage to go back in Felix’s room with Dimitri… it would be easier to take care of the two of them more easily… He knew Felix wouldn’t be angry against Dimitri for long and for real but it was maybe too fast?

He just couldn’t support to see them cry…

He could handle anything, he could suffer every bad things Miklan did to him but those tears? His beloved friends crying? He preferred being throw in a well, shiver in water, rather than having to see them sad one more second…


	3. Ghosts

**_Five years later_ **

“After a long consultation of the council, it has been determined that Rufus can only have been killed by you, Dimitri Alexander Blaiddyd. That’s the reason why, you will be executed.”

Dimitri was hold by guards, kneeling in front of Cornelia. They have forcing him down and he had a mad smile on the lips.

He had tried to defend himself and while he was sure his argumentation was good, he couldn’t win. There was something in Cornelia’s eyes… Or perhaps it was because Sylvain had hit on her while he was trying to defend him? But Rodrigue’s words, Gilbert’s words, the Magrave Gautier’s argumentation… He knew he could count on them and yet… He was judged guilty.

He would never have killed Rufus.

He would never have killed someone from his family… And yet. They said he did. He was just facing the fact that… he was about to die.

“Your Highness!”

Dedue?

Dimitri closed his eyes. He didn’t want Dedue to be there. He was afraid people might want to hurt him… Without his protection, people just will be stupid and unfair. It was sad that he had to be there to protect a little Dedue. It was sad that they couldn’t see how precious he was…

It was sad that _he_ was insulted, saw like a fake son because he didn’t support the death of his father. Of his stepmother… of Glenn?!

He hated them.

And now… who will idiot enough to happily support the one who certainly killed his uncle just because she was pretty.

He hated her…

He wanted her head.

But not as much as Edelgard’s head…

Edelgard’s head…

“Bring him out of my view,” Cornelia commanded. “And take that out of my view too. I don’t want this thing to dirty the Castle,” she groaned.

Her eyes darted Dedue.

Sylvain next to her hiccupped.

“That’s mean! Lady, you could not say ‘thing’ talking about me? I just said your boobs were big and every people having eyes…”

Dedue was glad Sylvain tried to protect him… in his very own way, but he extended his hand, pressing it on his shoulder to make him stop.

They have to protect Dimitri first. He… He was used to get insulted by them and that didn’t reach him.

He said…

Though, at this moment, his heart was crushed because they were bringing Dimitri to the prison and he will be executed?

He couldn’t accept that…

He couldn’t _tolerate_ that.

The door of the prison closed with a violent sound.

Dimitri smirked. Did they know he could open those bars if he wanted it? What would stop him? Those guards all around? He could knock them out. Nothing should stop him from killing Edelgard…

**Clap. Clap. Clap.**

Applauses?

Dimitri moved his head and saw Glenn, his back pressing against the wall.

“My congratulations, my Lion. You killed another of your beloved. How do you feel?”

“I… I didn’t want Uncle Rufus to die. This isn’t my fault.”

“This is your fault! Don’t you understand?” Glenn moved away from the wall and approached him. “They killed him because of you. Just like they killed me because of you. My little Lion,” he sighed. “Don’t you understand?”

Dimitri closed his eyes. He wanted to make him stop talking. It wasn’t the first time he tried. He had tried so often to push him away even if his memories were always intoxicating him more and more. Seeing Glenn appears, or his father, his mother, some of his friends? It was always delightful but sometimes their words…

Yes, he would kill Edelgard for his mother, even though she used to be Edelgard’s mother too. Yes, he would destroy everything for his father, it was fine. But when they told him he was a disappointment? They died because of him? He was in the carriage that day… if it was really because of him?

Sometimes, he tried to repress all of this. To push them away.

It was always making his head so painful, unbelievable headache… this plus the lack of sleep…

Pushing them away was the worst because he truly needed them. When they weren’t there, he had the feeling he would forget the look of their face, the sound of their voices…

“They are right. You killed Rufus. Not with your bare hands, of course… but in the end, it is the same. Just like me. You are a murderer. That’s why Felix hates you. That’s why everybody hates you.”

“Do you hate me?” Dimitri asked, opening his eyes.

“Me?” Glenn approached him a bit more, his forehead pressing against his. “Do you think I hate you?”

Dimitri looked him.

Now he didn’t want him to move away. He felt his thumb slid on his lower lip and he could have hiccupped of joy. His cheeks were burning him.

He never stopped to like him. Love him. When Ingrid was reminding how much she cared about him, he couldn’t help but be jealous that she was supposed to marry him. When they talked about him, he only remembered. His childhood crush turned into something else. Was it bad that, sometimes Glenn was mean to him? Because he was also so kind with him. His gesture, his contact…

“Please don’t hate me?”

“Then… why don’t you come with me?” He smiled and approached his lips from his, forcing Dimitri to lean toward him. “After all, I gave my life for you. You could give your life for me…”

“I would give anything for you…” Dimitri whispered.

He shivered when their lips touched.

Finally.

He closed his eyes with delight, savoring.

“It is nice to know you would not give anything for us.”

Dimitri hiccupped and glanced at his father, standing in the corner. Now, he was all blushing. He just had his first kiss in front of his father!

The man was watching him.

“You promised me to kill the Flame Emperor… You promised me to avenge me.”

“I will,” Dimitri said.

“You will?” Lambert laughed. “You can’t die for being kissed and avenge your family, Dimitri! You have to make a choice.”

“Perhaps I can first avenge you and then…”

“You would make me wait?” Glenn asked.

“You have to stop Edelgard and kill her,” Anselma pursued.

“Stepmother, I want to please you but…”

“You think you deserve to live?” Glenn asked. “You think killing Edelgard, her Vassal and those who helped her will repair what you did to us?!”

“I did my best. I searched, I think uncle Arundel…”

“Uncle Arundel…”

“Uncle Rufus,” Dimitri hiccupped.

“The man probably killed me but…”

“Sir Rufus, you know it’s not Lord Arundel’s fault if you died. It’s only Dimitri’s,” Glenn smiled, passing his arms around Dimitri.

The Prince let himself crush on the floor. His heart was beating so fast. His head was drumming. He was feeling absolutely horrible and it was as if a vise was pressing on his skull. It was the first time the migraine was coming because they were there and not because he tried to make them disappear.

They were all talking together and their words…

They were sinking in him.

Why would they be wrong?

He caused all of this, he couldn’t keep his promise, he couldn’t even die to join Glenn without doubting.

He was disappointing.

Again.

Again.

Wasn’t he… a monster? A Beast… A Boar…

He heard sound in the stairs and he pressed his head between his knees. They had to shut up so he could think. Of course he wanted everybody to be dead but… what? He could kill the guards if they tried to bring him to his death…

Yes, he should do that.

He totally should do that.

When the guards will arrive, when they will open the door…

He could snap their neck in a unique gesture…

The paces approached.

“So, this is what you choose… I’m glad to know I meant so little for you.”

Glenn’s voice was cold.

“I will die for you, Glenn. First, avenging…”

The paces approached. The barrier opened…

“Dimitri!”

He jumped on his feet in a bold and his hands immediately went around a neck.

“STOP!” a voice roared.

Dimitri felt a violent hit on his wrist, and another between his legs. He let go on the first guard, rage inhabiting him. He was still suffering but he didn’t care. The pain was helping him to focus on that fight. He would turn back the pain to that other guard. He grabbed him and threw the head against the wall.

“THAT’S MY BROTHER!”

Glenn’s voice echoed in the room.

Dimitri’s eyes widened. He saw Felix hiccupped as his body was crushing on the floor. Sylvain dashed to him to pick him up. He called all the healing magic he could to heal the damage, panic in the eyes. Felix wasn’t moving in his arms.

“Dimitri… wh… what have you done?”

“I thought you were guards…”

“That’s us. We tricked the guards, we knocked down some of them… We haven’t much time…”

“You want to save me?” Dimitri whispered.

“Of course!” Sylvain said. He pressed his forehead against Felix’s. “Fe’… Fe’, reply to me… Is he breathing? Does he look like he breathes?” he asked to Dimitri.

Dimitri stared the spectacle. Stared his friend sliding his hand behind Felix’s head so he could see if there was blood streaming… He brought his hand to him. No blood. Perhaps everything was fine? Dimitri seemed to come back to his reality at the moment he was hitting him against the wall so perhaps…

“Dimitri?!” He looked panicked. “I need to bring him to someone who can help him. Is Mercedes still there? I…”

“I won’t leave,” Dimitri whispered. “I am a Boar.”

“What?” Sylvain groaned in surprise.

“I tried to kill you, I almost killed Felix… I killed Glenn, father, mother, uncle…I deserve my punishment. I’m not worthy to live.”

“Stop saying stupidities!”

“You know the truth. Face the facts… I belong to this prison. But you, Sylvain…when will you say to him you love him? Next time, someone will really kill him…”

“What?”

“He always had been the first for you… Look at you.” Dimitri entered the jail, his hand coming around the bars. “Stop chasing after ladies and told him.”

“Dimitri! Don’t close this door!”

Sylvain got up, lifting Felix. He glanced at him as his head went backward. He was so afraid he was holding a dead body. He moved Felix arm to pass it around him and felt a very light pressure from one finger.

Or was he dreaming it?

“Why? I’m already dead anyway.”

“You’re not dead!”

“Soon, I will.”

“We need you.”

“Leave. You don’t want Felix to die in your arms, right?”

He had to protect them. If he left now, they will go after them. And if Sylvain didn’t bring Felix to medical aid soon… If he couldn’t protect the Ghosts around him, if he couldn’t repair his errors, he could at least do his best for Sylvain and Felix.

If his words could also bring them together…

He had seen this idiot turning around Felix so often.

“Tell him before it is too late…”

Dimitri closed the prison and turned on himself. He couldn’t help but smiling when he saw Glenn holding out his arms to him.

He was ready to die in his arms…

“We will come back for you, Dimitri. I will force you out if I have to! You won’t die here!”

“Of course, he won’t die here…” Glenn caressed Dimitri’s hair. “They will bring him in the scaffold,” he smiled.

Cold.

Terribly cold…

**_Four years later_ **

Nine years.

It asked him nine years to fully be able to be on his own. He remembered how the first months had been hard. Or not exactly. The fever had been so hard he kept fainting. For weeks. There had been the infection, then the pain and after, he had to wait for his skin to heal and, Sothis, the number of times he thought he was good and fell sick again because, no, his skin was too exposed.

If there was just that.

There was also his hand… his hand refusing to work… It had been so horribly hard to learn to use his left arm. Not only for the common tasks but also for fighting.

Nine years…

Nine years… and if this was the only thing… Sometimes, he was just… There was this time where he went on the market to help the household, not being just a parasite, and he lost himself. He needed three hours to come back home. He lost sense of reality often and he already woke up too often, searching vainly Felix in his bed and panicking because he wasn’t there. How often he hadn’t called the young Prince?

How often he hadn’t end up in the battlefield, now covered with grass and flowers, waiting in the wind and just trying to figure things out.

Those who saved his life thought he couldn’t leave now.

Glenn knew he had to leave.

He had heard about War, about Dimitri’s death by the hand of… Cornelia? All of this looked like non-sense and he didn’t want to believe about this death…

He had to find his Prince, his King…

Nine years of inactivity.

It was so ridicule.

He should have moved before.

They keep saying to him he wouldn’t be able to do it but he knew it was wrong. And… he knew it wasn’t that wrong neither. He had needed a lot of time to be able to deal with the worms eating him alive. Especially because, sometimes he seemed that everything was alright and suddenly, it changed and he was left to his own devices.

Leaving a place he started to know as well as the back of his hand to go in a country that had been deeply changed because of the War? It was extremely risky.

Who know if he wouldn’t lose himself?

In every sense.

Who know if his mind could handle it?

He will figure it…

He couldn’t stay, arms folded, turning his thumbs, like that…

That wasn’t him.

He had to find himself first or he would never be able to watch himself in the glass, or any reflecting surface, anymore…

Nine years…

Glenn fought the hatred he had for himself; Glenn fought the words swirling in his mind, those telling him how often he had failed to his brother, to his King…

But the road was long and the loneliness was worrying for him.

Ironic for someone who used to be so lonely, asking to everybody to just let him train, eat, sleep, etc. alone. Who would believe suddenly, he would love passing all his time with a tiny boy looking a bit too much like him? And who would believe the loneliness who start to lick him to a point where every of his pace looked dangerous.

He didn’t know where he was walking despite the map he kept checking and annotating. He could lose himself without even noticing it and he knew it. He had been alone for so long…

When will he see someone?

To tell him where he was… When…

Since when was he walking?

Where was he heading?

There was no one… just the snow, the cold… It was hitching his scars. Plunging his mind in the darkness. Who would believe that something so bright, light reverberating on it and menacing to blind him, could be terrifying that way?

Everything was looking aside.

He didn’t know how many hours, days, weeks… months he had needed to finally see the forest he was searching.

He couldn’t forget it.

The time had passed slowly and the amount of times he had seen civilization, he could count it on his valid hands. He had encountered a bunch of animals though, and could have confirmed again that if he wasn’t as swift as before, he still was a threat for those who would encounter him. He had offered himself a fair amount of rabbit brew, a bit of deer and some dry meat that helped him to walk until here.

He didn’t know what he was doing.

He just knew it was the only thing he could do.

He expected.

What?

Nine years?

Nine years… He couldn’t be sure in what year there was. He just… hoped?

So he crossed the forest and the habit, perhaps, or the luck, maybe, brought him to the ruins of the Monastery of Garreg Mach. Vegetation was climbing all around, taking back their rights over the building.

Nine years? He started to doubt it!

Perhaps his baby brother was already married, with children.

He looked his hand… did he looked old?

Was his father still alive?

And Dimitri’s death…

No.

He refused to believe Dimitri could be dead.

He will find him.

He will find someone here who could tell him if Dimitri was alive, where… or just bring him back to Fhirdiad, perhaps.

His eyes travelled along the remaining of the Monastery then landed on the Church. He knew where he had to go…

He walked on the other side of the bridge, his eyes not even trying to look at the beautiful landscape as the Sun was setting… Who cared about the soft orange colors of the sky, nor the pink tones…

And yet, in such a lovely evening, Glenn walked toward the Goddess Tower. He could remember the Heron Cup night, when everybody in his class tried to push him to be the dancer of their class. He remembered also the number of girls who had wanted to bring him in the ball or the tower. He just had trained that night… He didn’t care about the ball and not even Holst and Balthus had managed to bring him there. Just to go train a bit with him and it ended with all of them lying on the floor while chatting about their beloved sibling…

And now…

Now…

Glenn stopped as he saw a body wrapped in a big cape that looked quite warm. The long blond hair, the eyepatch of the eye… No one could recognize the man who was there, without the Grandeur of a King, without the sanity of a man… and yet, at the second he saw the wind push away the blond hair from the eye that looked up at him…

Of course, he could recognize him.

Who wouldn’t?

“I found you…”

The blue eye stopped on him. For a second, looking like the eternity, he was threw back at the time where they all played hide and seek. Glenn would always found them back. He remembered the softness of his hug, his smile.

Glenn…

It was Glenn.

He had changed, his face wounded but…

“You… Gl…enn?”

The wound, looking like the fire licking his face when he had to leave him.

He had a shiver when he felt the fingers along his cheek. So soft, so horrible at once…

“Oh, little Lion… I’m sorry, I’m so late…”

Glenn. Glenn was there. Glenn! Glenn. So different but it was him. Glenn. After all this time. Coming back from the death. Glenn…

He saw his lips moving, a soft smile but tired.

“ ** _My_** lion?”

Glenn…

He looked on the side as he felt arms around his shoulders, a breath hitting his cheek at the exact place he had felt the hand before.

“Do you really have time for an **_imposter_**? Was giving my life for you not enough? Do you think you truly deserve to have me back?”

“No… “

“No?”

“That’s what I believed.”

“Please, go away…” Dimitri whispered.

“Go away? You are the one who call my name again and again and again. Will you never let me rest? You weren’t even able to die for me? You are really the worst, my Lion.”

“I won’t leave. I will bring you back to Fhirdiad.”

“Enough of this!” the King roared.

“No. You can’t run away like that.”

“Enough of this? What is happening to you?”

“Leave me alone!” Dimitri groaned.

“Alone? I will not… I will not let you alone a second more…”

“Alone? Why… Why would I leave you alone?”

“Please… Both of you!” Dimitri begged.

“Both of me?”

“You’re really greedy, my Lion. What are you dreaming with this **_imposter_** and me?” he asked, rolling his arms a bit more around his shoulder, his fingers sliding in the blond hair.

Dimitri twitched when he saw the other Glenn’s hand caress his cheek, touch the others hand. It was as if their fingers intertwined.

“I will bring you home.”

“You’re either an idiot or a monster if you believe you deserve that.”

“I’m a monster…” Dimitri whispered.

“Little Lion… You are not a monster. Come… You need a better place than this one.”

“Shut up or I will kill you!”

“Oh yes! Kill him!” Glenn whispered as his ear. “Kill him just like you killed my baby brother, your uncle, your parents… Me. Kill me again, my Lion!”

“You don’t have to kill me,” the other Glenn replied. “Everything will be alright. You just have to…”

“Kill him! Aren’t you a beast so keen of blood, anyway?”

Glenn pressed a kiss on his cheek.

Dimitri couldn’t hear the one in front of him talking, the other being so loud. He wanted to kill him.

To kill them.

He had to make them vanish…

“Don’t touch me!” Dimitri roared.

He threw away the one around his shoulders and jumped on his feet, knocked down the one in front of him. Glenn’s back hit the floor and the pain in his wound swirled in him like a bolt of thunder.

Dimitri didn’t even have his lance. He didn’t know where he had put it at the moment and he didn’t need it. He will strangle this Glenn with his bare hands. His eye was filled with hatred.

“Do it!”

“Little Lion, stop!”

Glenn threw his feet in his belly, almost touching his groin.

Memories swirled into the Prince-King.

And he wanted to kill him even more. His hands approached Glenn’s neck. The man placed his knee between them and hiccupped as it pressed on his wounds but he did his best to push him away anyway.

“Dimitri!” he groaned.

“’Dimitri’? Isn’t it the proof? Kill. Him. Do what you had started nine years before…”

“Nine years…” Dimitri groaned. “I wait for this moment since nine years…”

Glenn tried to push him away.

“I waited too. I’m bringing you back home. We’re going back home together, Dimitri, my Highness, my little Lion. I will not let you alone again. You must have been so scared…”

The fingers touched his throat.

“I know father would have taken care of you correctly but you also begged me to stay alive. I’m there! We will go back to Fhirdiad together!”

“I want you to disappear! Stop pestering me!”

Dimitri’s hands passed around his throat. Glenn tried to make him let go on him, scratching his wrist. Perhaps he could reach his sword and knock him out before he might kill him?

“Kill him!”

“Leave me alone!”

Dimitri let go on Glenn and swirled toward the other Glenn, throwing his punch in him.

“What the…” Glenn whispered on the floor.

He was glad to be alive! But… what the hell?

He knew his head was a bit dizzy but Dimitri… it was more than dizziness. He said ‘both of you’ and he was fighting against the void?

“Oh little Lion… what happened to you…?” he whispered.

He will bring him back. Perhaps not in Fhirdiad because someone certainly needed to take care of him and make sure everything would be alright. He jumped on his feet, grabbed his sword and threw it on Dimitri. The heavy guard hit the Prince behind the head. The young man had a groan and his legs started to shake. Glenn held out his left arm. He let out a little painful growl as he caught him. He pressed his head against his, looking the closed face. The hit had knocked him, as Glenn could expect, he had worked on that so much, and now… Well, he could carry Dimitri around. He might search for a cart or something…

But he will bring him back home.

He swore…


	4. Seeing you again

“What?”

Felix moved his hands, his hair falling down again. It must be the tenth time he grabbed them to tie them but it must be each time, his father managed to say something that made him angry. It was an easy move, though. And it was hard to know if he hadn’t put on his high tights yet or if he tried to throw them on him or anything else…

He had just a sleeveless turtleneck, after all.

And a garter with a knife on, but that wasn’t surprising.

“I said…”

“I’m not deaf!” Felix groaned. “But I believed I was your ‘best General’ as you said. I have to go on the front lines! Our people are dying and I won’t stay here, folding my arms, because you expect me to take over your stupid Dukedom! I don’t want it anyway!” he yelled.

“It is not a matter of choices. And you will stay here, as I said.”

“I don’t care! I said I will go on the frontline and do what you can’t. What do you expect? To lock me in! Try!”

“I ask you to stay one or two days more.”

“And I refuse!” Felix said, taking his hair with a groan.

“I will lock you in,” Rodrigue said.

“… Lock me in?” Felix repeated, letting the thin dark blue thread slide between his fingers.

“That’s what you proposed, isn’t it? I take you by words.”

“Don’t you try,” his son replied slowly.

“Is this a thread?”

“Perhaps.”

Rodrigue smiled. He approached him.

“Do you really believe you will be able to beat me?”

“Yes,” Felix replied.

Without the slightest doubt in his voice.

Rodrigue laughed. “I want to see that, but hadn’t you a fight you wanted to have against our opponent? Shouldn’t you economize your strength, dear son?”

“I have enough strength for both of this. However, I have to recognize you are right.” Felix swirled on his heels and walked toward the door. “Goodbye father.”

He opened the door.

And his father’s hand slammed it closed.

They heard a huffed sound on the other side.

Both frowned.

“Your Grace Fraldarius?” a voice came from the other side. “Scout Fritz, on the other side.”

“What is it about?” Rodrigue asked, pressing his hand on the door so Felix wouldn’t open it.

“You have asked us to warn you when the… I mean _he_ would be there and here he is. He is coming. We have let him enter.”

“Aaaaah! Very well.”

Rodrigue moved his hand, offering to his son to step out with a swift gesture. Felix frowned.

“Who is _he_?” Felix asked.

“Why wouldn’t you go figure it out by yourself?”

“What idiot trick…”

“He is waiting for you too, your Grace Felix!”

“Thank you, Fritz, you can leave,” Rodrigue replied.

Felix turned his head toward his father, his eyes wider than never.

“Who is he?”

Rodrigue grabbed the knob, opening the door and showing the exit to his son. The scout was leaving, running, and Felix’s sense were all dizzy. How his father could have done his best for him not to even leave this room to now let him do like that? He could run away to war. Even if his hair were still down and his body too uncovered.

“It is…” Felix whispered.

Rodrigue smiled.

“Are you sure?” he pursued.

The Duke nodded with a soft smile.

“Are you…” Felix glanced toward the door. “Are you…”

“Go. I won’t change my mind,” he said.

Felix bit his lower lip and approached him, holding out his arms. It was at Rodrigue’s turn to have widened eyes. And yet, he accepted that hug with a great pleasure, caressing his hair.

“Thank you,” Felix whispered.

He moved away from the hug after a few seconds and quickly walked down the floor to the barrier following the mezzanine above the big hall. It was pursuing along a huge snail stairs, but Felix didn’t even took the time to climb it down.

Especially not when two piercings and loving eyes grabbed him.

“You’re there!”

“I’m there!”

Felix climbed on the barrier.

“Wait! Don’t do t…”

It was too late, he caught a tiny young man and, smiling like never, made him swirl in the air, pressing his lips all over his face while the arms wrapped around his shoulders. He let down one of his hand to lift one thigh and press it along his, kissing him fully this time.

“I missed you so much,” he said against his lips.

“It has been so long,” Felix helplessly said against his lips. He pressed their forehead together. “Have you received my letters?”

“Every of them. I kept reading them, over and over. Have you got mine?”

Felix nodded, pressing his lips against his again, his heart racing so fast in his chest.

“Two years…” Felix said under his breath.

“Two years of torture. And you… You are more beautiful than the last time I saw you.”

“You must have seen very little people at War,” Felix smirked.

Sylvain shook his head, his fingers caressing the skin, even though he couldn’t feel it because of his armor. In fact… he removed one of his gantlet with his teeth, and a lot of determination, so he could lift the other thigh, touching it fully. His palm was covered with callus and so Felix had a shiver but he didn’t care. It was his touch and it was the most precious of all…

“I’m just your slave, Felix. I love you so much.”

Felix leaned to kiss him again, wanting to make him close his mouth, or open it for something else. And not only because he was blushing at every word he said. In contrary of what he used to say to ladies, you could feel the sincerity and the love when he talked to him, watched him…

“Sylvain, when you will have enough of eating my son’s lips, please come in the dining room, I will serve real food. You must be hungry.”

Sylvain blushed and turned his head toward the man who just threw him a smirk.

“Yes, Sir!” he replied.

He watched him move on the side with a quick glance, smiling shyly, and then come back to Felix. Which was lovingly watching him until he got his attention and there, he pretended he wasn’t watching him at all.

Sylvain smiled and kissed his cheeks then his lips as Felix turned his head toward him.

“I always forgot how it is warm here…” Sylvain whispered against his lips.

“Are you saying this because of my father, of your hands fondling my naked tights or anything else?” Felix asked, passing his hands in Sylvain’s hair.

They were longer, falling on the upper part of his back, a bit ruffled too, dirty. But Felix didn’t care. It had been so long since the last time he touched him and he didn’t believe he could miss that much to feel his breath against his face, to feel his hands touching him.

And more.

“I’m just saying…” He kissed him. “I feel like home here.” Another kiss. “My heart is warm when you’re there. I love you so much!”

He made him swirl again. Felix let out a sound between hiccup and scream in surprise and tightened his arms around his shoulders.

“Stop it!” he protested.

But that was making him laugh and Sylvain just wanted to make him laugh more again. And he made rain kisses over his face, whatever if his three days beard was scratching his face.

“Felix? What are you doing with Miklan? That’s gross…”

Sylvain stopped to move immediately. Felix turned his head, extremely dizzy, to the entry and stayed there, in shock.

Was it because of the words?

Was it because of the Boar leaning over a shoulder?

Or was it because said shoulder belonged to Glenn…?

Glenn who was watching them, holding a very knocked out Dimitri…

Glenn.

It was Glenn…

Both Sylvain and Felix were absolutely mouth agape in front of him and they couldn’t even react to this. After nine years, he was there, alive, in the entry…

“Glenn…” Felix whispered.

“I… need to… go throw up or something…” Sylvain said. “See ya later, Glenn.”

He put down Felix, not even brushing his forehead with his lips, and moved away. He quickly climbed up the stairs, knowing where he was going because he had come here so often anyway. He still had his very own room here, with old stuffed bears and other game he would never have at his own home…

Home…

This place was home…

“Glenn, I…” Felix watched his brother. And held out his hand on the corridor Rodrigue took a bit earlier. “Father is in the dining hall.”

“Felix?” Glenn called.

The young man walked toward the stairs, taking them at his turn. But he was slower. He wanted to swirl on himself, dash to him, jump in his arms, just as the thirteen years old child he used to be…

But he couldn’t.

Not only because of Dimitri though he was mad at the fact he was coming back with the Boar… all those years and what he had searched first?

The Boar.

How much time it had asked him?

How fast he could have come back and…

Felix hated those jealous thoughts but they were there. His heart was racing again in his chest but it wasn’t pleasant… Not like when Sylvain was holding him.

“The Boar’s room is still available,” Felix said.

“Who’s room?” Glenn asked.

“Mine…” Dimitri groaned.

Felix froze in the steps. He closed his eyes two seconds and then opened them again, a cold smile on his lips.

“His.”

“What is happening to Felix…”

“You are all dead…” Dimitri groaned. “And you should just shut up before I…”

Felix turned his head toward the entry as the sentence suddenly stopped.

“Can’t you help me?” Glenn asked to his little brother.

It was more than clear that he just knocked Dimitri out.

He wouldn’t say how often he had to do it. How many times he had tried to have a discussion with the King to be finally forced to make him pass out because there was no chatting allowed. Dimitri was just talking murder and madness…

“I can but only if it is quick and I won’t stay any longer.”

Felix quickly walked down the stairs and came to Dimitri. He seemed really reluctant to grab him but he did anyway and with Glenn, they went again to the steps and climbed them up.

It was the moment for Glenn to try to talk to him.

Felix was saying nothing.

And once again… he wondered on the time…

And yet…

After all this time… What should he say first? What Felix would have expected to hear? Suddenly, what he wanted to say seemed to be so vain…

“I missed you,” Glenn said finally.

Felix glanced at him. His lips pinched and he looked down just after.

“You have no idea how much I missed you… I thought…”

“I’m here, now. I won’t leave anymore.”

Felix bit his lower lip. A droplet of blood appearing on the corner.

“I will. There is this War and I have lost enough time not helping the citizens. I was supposed to leave one hour ago.”

“In this outfit?” Glenn asked. “Take my coat,” he commanded.

He moved to let go on Dimitri but…

“Don’t let go on him,” Felix groaned. “And just put him in this room. I have to do. I will see you after.”

Felix opened the door. One of those they gave to visitors usually. Not even the noblest one. The room was so dull.

“Felix, wait…”

“I can’t. I have to go,” Felix replied.

He pushed Dimitri on Glenn’s shoulder, almost making him fall under the heavy musculature, and the leaden armor, and swirled on his heels. He quickly walked to the stairs to climb then, his brother not understand anything and needing to hug him so much. But… he couldn’t. And Dimitri was groaning.

He had hit him less strongly.

That wasn’t something bad neither.

Perhaps the house of the Fraldarius would ease him. But he would bring him in his own room first… he have to climb another flight of stairs, though. He should have hold back Felix… But his precious little brother had already disappeared and Dimitri was starting to weight on him.

“Courage, little Lion,” he said.

“Glenn…” Dimitri groaned. “I never wanted…”

Glenn pushed him toward the stairs, looking at him.

“…you to…” Dimitri sighed deeply, still a bit dizzy. “… die…”

“I’m there, little Lion. I’m there now. Can you climb the stairs?”

“’lright…”

Glenn looked him as they climbed up the stairs and he brought him in his room.

He didn’t know when Felix will come but he knew that, for the very first time, Dimitri looked a bit peaceful when he laid him on the bed. He removed the eyepatch and as much as the armor he could, his fingers twitching sometimes. He pushed away the huge coat and tug on the blankets. The room was always prepared even if Rodrigue firmly believed it was over of his little Prince and so a soft smell grabbed Dimitri’s nose. He groaned again but it was the first time for years since he had finally a nice warm cocoon, that the cold metal of his armor wasn’t burning his skin with a frozen bite… The smell was so soft.

“Sleep tight, my little Lion,” Glenn said, pressing a kiss on his forehead. “I will protect you. I’m there…”

He removed his boots and lied next to him.

He certainly should have run to his father but he was so tired and didn’t remember the last time he had sleep.

For the first time, they both could rest…

“Sylvain?”

Felix opened Sylvain’s room door but there was no redhead in this room. In doubt, he went in his own room. And if ever he found his lover naked, waiting for him, he would choke him with his bare hands.

But he honestly doubted about that…

No Sylvain.

Damn! He should have looked where he was doing!

He felt a wave of self-hatred swallow him and he started to open every door. He didn’t care what would wait him on the other side.

Empty, empty, empty… Sylvain!

“Sylvain!”

Felix entered the room.

“Felix.”

“Are you alright?”

He closed the door behind him and approached him, his hands sliding on his cheeks.

“I’m fine… I think. I wanted to… wash my hair and cut them but…”

Sylvain watched his own reflection in the wooden tub. It was steaming so you could guess he had managed to warm it after having dragged water from the well. The bathrooms were all placed in such a way they will end up in different well so they could wash themselves from inside instead of going in a river or something else.

To be honest, it has been a big effort enough for Sylvain to drag it from the well because he never felt good around well. As much as he preferred to wash himself in river not larger than one feet and deeper than his ankle. A little fountain was okay too…

Sometimes, he managed to take a real bath but it was really rare.

And there…

He was just helpless in front of the tub.

“And you… You shouldn’t be there,” Sylvain said. “Glenn is alive. Glenn is there. Why are you…”

“Don’t be silly,” Felix replied. “You always pass first.”

“What? No… Not before Glenn?”

“Before everybody,” Felix replied. “Always.”

Sylvain leaned in and pressed their forehead together. His hand went down and brushed his thigh, his fingers coming around the knife he removed.

“So tell me,” he said against his lips. “Do I look like Miklan?”

Felix watched him in the eyes for the first time since so long. He could feel the knife along his skin, moving to come between them.

“You’re better than him. But, yes, with long hairs, you look a bit like him. That means nothing, though. Now, answer me: will you stab yourself with this knife and I have to hit you or you want something else from it? I would be glad if you didn’t hurt yourself with _my_ knife.”

Sylvain held out the knife to him.

“Can you cut my hair?”

Felix took it and pushed away a strand of dark blue hair before kneeling on the floor.

“Sit down,” he invited. “I will take care of you.”

Sylvain complied. Felix leaned to grab the bucket next to them and he also grabbed a pouch of liquid soap with a good smell of rose. It must belong to his father because usually, he just washed quickly his hair and nothing else. He remembered he should be on the battlefield but… it could wait tomorrow, perhaps.

“Lean, I will pour water on you.”

Felix was about to put the knife in his mouth to have his two hands available, but he preferred to be able to hold the discussion with Sylvain. His lover wouldn’t panic because of the memories of the well if he kept hearing his voice and knew what he was doing. So, he pushed the knife back to the garter and would use it later.

Sylvain leaned, his hands on the edge of the tub. His nails were almost digging in.

Felix pressed a kiss on his cheek.

“That’s just me.”

“Yes… I’m ready.”

Felix poured the warm liquid on him. Sylvain had a shiver and moved his hand. Felix brushed it as he took a bit more of water to soak his hair fully.

“Say…” Sylvain asked.

“Yes?”

“When the War would be over… would you marry me?”

Felix passed his hand on the red hair. He leaned a bit more.

“Are you sure…”

“Of course, I’m sure! I want to marry you!” Sylvain protested.

Felix smiled. “… you want to wait that long?”

The young Fraldarius leaned and kissed him.

There was an arm around him. Strong and reassuring.

He hadn’t feel like that for so long. It was unbelievably good to have this feeling wrapping around him.

Glenn turned in the bed and searched to see it through the Darkness. He noticed blond strands. Or something looking pretty much alike? It was really hard to see in the dark, even if he had accustomed his eyes to it for so long. He noticed a right eyes bared with a big scar.

He leaned his head on the side and pressed himself in the embrace.

It was soft and warming.

He wanted to enjoy it a moment.

He closed his eyes again and pressed his not wounded check on a shoulder, breathing. The smell wasn’t the kind of you would enjoy and yet… it held something that was soothing him.

Perhaps he slept a little.

Or he was dozing?

It was hard to know but it was pleasant. The breath though a bit harsh, rocking him as a tender lullaby. He hadn’t felt that well since so long…

After a moment, though, Glenn got up.

He needed to check on Felix. It was an habit he had because his little brother always had nightmares and he was too afraid to leave his bed. He had to take care of him…

He left the soft embrace, promising himself to come back to it, and then the room.

From there, he walked toward Felix’s room. He yawned and rubbed his hair. While he promised himself it would be fast and he would come back pretty fast to the room and sleep more in this delightful cocoon, he knew he would stay look with his little brother. He just loved him so much. He just worried so much…

Glenn pushed open the door of his little brother’s room and…

Froze.

No.

It wasn’t possible.

He wasn’t seeing what he was seeing?

No…

No!

He stepped backward and dashed to his father’s room. He knocked four times while opening said door. It was the ‘code’ they used in the family. Rodrigue was a General, a fighter, a Shield and he was used to rely on this kind of code. He immediately woke up and turned his head toward the door.

He never realized how much Felix looked like Glenn before…

“Father! I can’t find Felix?! Where is he?”

Glenn?

It truly was Glenn?

Rodrigue moved out of his bed and walked toward the threshold. He held out his hands to take his face in his cheeks. One of them was soft, the other was so rough…

“Glenn… my son… You’re back.”

“Yes. I have brought the Prince with me…”

“You’re both alive?” Rodrigue whispered.

He couldn’t believe his ears.

“But Felix…”

“He must be at War now.”

“At… At War?! He is thirteen years old! How could you…?”

“Glenn!” his father said, dry.

He wanted to hug him but he had to bring him back to the reality first.

“He is twenty-two years old.”

“No.”

“He is…”

Rodrigue stepped outside his room, still holding him. Sylvain was there so he hoped, perhaps… Holding his son’s hand, he walked toward Sylvain’s room. If Felix wasn’t in his room, he had no doubt to the place he might be.

He knocked at the door, four time, and pushed it open.

“Felix?”

“Yes,” he groaned, rolling on the floor with a heavy sound. He groaned even more and searched for his sword but he couldn’t put the hand on it. He moved his hand to his thigh and… “Damn! Sylvain where is my knife?” he asked.

Or… pretty much.

The sentence wasn’t certainly that understandable…

“Sylvain…” Glenn whispered.

He blinked as he watched Felix on the floor.

“Felix?”

“Glenn…”

Felix rubbed his eyes.

“Fe’…” Sylvain called, handing the knife by the blade, showing the guard to his lover.

Which grabbed it with a ‘thank’. He slid it between his garter and his skin and walked toward Glenn.

“What is happening?”

Glenn watched him, the wounds on his legs, the magic marks on his arms, the black circles under his eyes, the pale complexion and the thin waist.

What had happened?

“I just…” Glenn blinked. “I just hadn’t realized…” He frowned. “Eh, my baby brother. How are you doing?” he asked, pressing a kiss on his forehead.

“Glenn, it is past midnight, I think… are you sure…”

“I wanted to be sure you had no nightmares,” Glenn cut short.

He couldn’t confess he was so disoriented and he couldn’t deal with it. It was so hard to understand for himself so explain it?

“It’s fine,” Felix replied. “I’m doing alright.”

“I take care of him, Glenn. You can rest yourself,” Sylvain said.

They all wanted to talk with him, put things down and understand everything but the tension of the War, and the fact they were all half-asleep, helped to accept the fact Glenn was there.

They didn’t know how but he was there.

It was relieving. It was raising their mood but it was hard to know it while everything they wanted was going back to sleep. Who know when they will have to get up for an actual fight… The Fraldarius Dukedom, and thus the Mansion itself, was one of the most important Bastion of the resistance…

Though they were all half-asleep, Sylvain certainly was frozen on place, terrified, at the second Glenn’s eyes landed on him. There was so much disdain and hatred in there. That wasn’t helping that he was almost naked. Through the blankets sliding here and there, exposing the limbs sparkled with freckles, scars and bruises, you could truly believe he wasn’t wearing a tiny underwear.

“If he tries to touch you,” Glenn groaned.

“Oh, he can do whatever he wants,” Felix said, moving his hand in the dim light from the candles on the corridor.

Rodrigue took his younger son’s hand. One of the flame’s beam touched his finger, hitting a golden ring.

“When have you done that?” he asked.

Sylvain jumped out of the bed and approached, embracing Felix and showing his own ring with the excitation of a puppy.

Rodrigue frowned the eyebrows. He was almost feeling as lost as his other son because… Sylvain hadn’t longer hair earlier?

“We married in the Fraldarius’ chapel earlier! Now I am Sylvain José Fraldarius!” he excitedly said.

“The chapel?” Rodrigue repeated.

Felix nodded. A quick wedding in the Fraldarius’ chapel, in those times, was enough. Since they had their love anyway… Not waiting anymore was very important to them. after all, who knows how long they could be together before being torn apart again? Who knows if they will survive the next battle?

“I still will open your belly and remove what you call gut if…”

“No,” Felix said. “I won’t allow you to threaten my husband in front of me,” he stated. “But I love you and I’m so glad to see you.”

The little small he threw him could have warmed Glenn’s heart if he wasn’t himself so lost. Everything was so out of control. He had the feeling his baby brother was still thirteen, that he would sneak in his arms because of a bad dream and now… he was married and he was sneaking in the arms of a man almost naked.

It made him realize how much those nine years must have been long, harsh… Felix was talking back, had black circle, had seen the War, the horror… and he had left him all alone… This wasn’t a baby anymore. He wasn’t even sure he could lift him like before to press a gentle kiss on his forehead and ease his sorrow…

He moved his hands, cupping the face, the cheeks that stopped being round and sweet since so long. He leaned and pressed a kiss on his forehead through the ruffled strands.

“Take care of yourself, Felix.”

“I will. You too.”

Glenn smiled softly, he pressed his hand on his cheek and stepped backward to go back to sleep… If he managed to find where was the room he were sleeping in. In the worst case, he will find back his own room because he still had the ability to know where he was, even if he moved in a thick fog…

“Felix,” Rodrigue said.

“Yes?”

“I don’t understand everything but Glenn seems confuse. I would appreciate if you would go sleep in your room when you are there. It would certainly disorient him less.”

“I understand and I don’t want him to feel bad in any case. But I won’t hide my relation with Sylvain because he…”

“You can bring Sylvain with you,” Rodrigue said. “I didn’t expect you to want something else.”

“Oh… Alright then.”

“Nice! I’m your plush!” Sylvain smiled. Still hugging him he leaned to kiss him but stopped. “Uuh… Your Grace stepfather, can you look away so I can kiss your son?”

“Have a nice night, or what it remains of it,” Rodrigue said.

He turned on himself and stepped away, promising himself to check that Glenn had found his room. And promising himself he would know why the Goddess has blessed him by giving him back his son.

He was so glad he died like a true Knight but, frankly? He was even gladder than beside having fought like a true Knight, he was back to them.


	5. I love you

Who knows if he managed to get used to everything or if a new dawn was helping him, but when he woke up, Glenn was more or less able to know where he was. Not only in the soft familial cocoon but in which bed. Yesterday, after all what happened, his mind had succeed to bring him in the bed he had to be. The only place where he could be useful and where he _had_ to be. With Felix snuggling in his husband’s embrace and Sylvain not even worrying the nightmares and memories of his brother, thanks to the tiny body in his arms, only one being needed him.

Dimitri.

He arrived in the soft cocoon and embraced again the long lost luxury of a Noble bed. A mattress soft and yet firm, blankets covering each inch of his body and warm, not itchy… Really, it was good. Especially in this embrace.

He opened slowly his eyes as the first light of the day caressed him.

Not only he was embracing someone but the someone was embracing him too. He snuggled against his broad chest. The arms closed around him, the hairs ticked his face and he groaned slightly, rubbing his nose against a cheek.

“Gl… enn…”

“What?” he groaned back.

“Gle…nn…”

The man rubbed his blue eyes with another growl and opened them slowly. He watched the one next to him and his heart stopped to beat for two good seconds. When it started again, he was out of breath. He was hugged by Dimitri and he didn’t know what he should do now? Push him away? Stay because… it was really pleasant.

But he was his Prince! Or his King, he didn’t know. And he was of the age of his little brother?

But… it wasn’t wrong to appreciate such a hug anyway?

And… when such arms hugged you, it was really hard not to like it… He was sure it was a crime not to enjoy his contact, not falling for the long lashes and the volunteer and yet quite soft face. Especially because he was sleeping, away from the trouble.

Glenn pushed away a long strand of hair and he guessed Dimitri could use a bath. He as well, to be honest…

He moved his fingers, caressing the eye bared with a scar. He wondered what happened.

He hated himself for not having been there, for not having protected him from this. From everything.

As he watched Dimitri, the two eyes opened. One of them almost white.

“Glenn…”

“I’m there, little lion. I will always be there from now on.”

Dimitri groaned.

“What happened to your eye?”

“You know,” Dimitri said.

“Why would I?”

“You were there,” the Prince replied.

“Little lion, I wish I was there but I wasn’t,” he insisted, his fingers in the blond hair.

“You see… He is an **_imposter_**. Why wouldn’t you destroy him now?”

“You don’t exist… Leave me alone,” Dimitri growled.

“I’m there,” Glenn said. He slid his hands on his cheeks. “Look at me, Dimitri. It’s me…”

Dimitri moved his fingers. It asked a lot of energy to the Knight not to flinch. The last time Dimitri tried to touch him, he tried to strangle him.

The last five times, in fact. That was the reason why he had knocked him out so much.

But now, they were in the Fraldarius house… It was different. Dimitri seemed to feel better and so, he let him touch him. His fingers, rough from the War and the unstoppable murders, were a bit painful for Glenn’s face, the scars still sensitive.

“You see?” Glenn asked.

“Tell me… and I tell you,” Dimitri said.

“I thought I will die. I was waiting for it, it was fine… Father had saved you. You would be fine. But… this woman came and brought me at her place. She healed me… and the rest has been so confuse. I needed time to heal. Then to be able to walk again, learn to use my left hand, fight again.”

“Those are lies! He is fake! You are playing yourself, my lion. You think I’m too mean? But I’m telling you the truth. No one can love you.”

Dimitri looked toward the Glenn kneeling on the mattress. He moved his fingers to caress his cheek tenderly.

“I could love you, if you were doing more efforts.”

“Glenn…” Dimitri whispered.

Glenn shook his hand in front of him.

“Little lion?”

“My Lion?” the other smiled, passing his arms around him.

“Silence… Both of you!”

This again…

Glenn frowned and took his face in his hands again. He pressed their forehead together.

“Little lion. There is no one else but me.”

“This one is rude. I recognize him being there, at least!” the other Glenn groaned.

He moved his lips and pressed them on the corner of his lips. Through Glenn’s hand. Dimitri’s eye widened, the other making him suffer as it tried.

“Step away… Step away… You’re dead… You’re dead. Everybody is dead…”

“Dimitri! Look at me.”

“Look at me.”

“I’m there. Alive…”

“You don’t deserve any of us alive.”

“Everybody is alive. Come see us…”

“He is lying.”

“Felix…”

“Dead.”

“Father…”

“He would die for you so who know if you haven’t already killed my whole family…”

“Sylvain…”

“He hates you because you killed the love of his life. If he hadn’t killed himself after that…”

“I haven’t see Ingrid yet but…”

“You killed me! We were engaged and she liked me, do you think…”

“SHUT UP!” Dimitri yelled. “I know! I know I have done everything wrong! I know everything is dead because of me! Leave me! I can’t join you before I killed Edelgard! I will kill her and I will join you! I…”

“DIMITRI!”

Dimitri opened his eye and watched Glenn, breathing heavily. The Knight in front of him was caressing his cheek.

“Dimitri… Come with me.”

Glenn got up from the bed and slid his hand along his arm until he could grab his hand. He tugged kindly, and yet firmly, on it.

“Come with me.”

Dimitri groaned. This Glenn was way more realist than the other.

“I stay there, my lion. When you will be decided to respect us, I will…”

The Prince looked above his shoulder as his favorite ghost was blowing him a kiss.

“Where are we going? How am I ended here?” Dimitri asked as he followed Glenn.

“I brought you here and we are going to see everybody. Felix will soon leave for War. If you see him before, perhaps…”

“Felix is dead… I killed him.”

“I saw him yesterday. He is so big…”

“He always has been short.” Dimitri glanced at him. “But he sure is taller than you so it must feel very big for you.”

“I meant he is not a tiny baby anymore! You knew what I meant!”

Dimitri watched him. There was a slight gleam in his eye. “I like you. I hope you’re real…”

“This is incredibly cute and frightening at once.”

“And I believe it,” Dimitri said.

He walked after him in the stairs and he was really thinking what he said. This Glenn was comforting, his voice was warmer and thought he had this scar all over his face, he was cuter than the one who kept stabbing him in the back.

This Glenn was more like what he remembered.

But… his memories were parasites by this other Glenn. But… he couldn’t remember why he loved so much to have him around. Perhaps because he was there. Glenn… Perhaps because he could feel his arms around him? His hands touching him, his lips discovering him…

But this Glenn was holding his hand.

He wanted him to be real…

He needed him to be real.

As they arrived in the entry, there weren’t a lot more of people here. A few servants already working and also Sylvain, only wearing a pants, his hair all ruffled. He was talking to Felix who was almost fully dressed, swords at his waist, knife hid, hair tied.

“See? Felix and Sylvain are there.”

“Eeeeh!” Sylvain smiled, passing his arm around Felix.

“Move your arm, now,” Glenn commanded.

Sylvain raised his arms. Felix was about to tug on his wrist anyway to ask for a kiss, but he stopped, staring at Dimitri.

“Do you need more?” Glenn asked. “Touching them?”

“He doesn’t touch me!” Felix groaned. “I leave.”

“He doesn’t want me to touch him because he isn’t real: I have killed him.”

Sylvain frowned. He snapped his fingers together. “Am I real?” he asked.

“I have no proof you could have killed yourself. You could be dead or…”

“Urgh,” Glenn commanded as Sylvain leaned on Felix and kissed him deeply. “Is this a proof for you? Can I knock him off, now?”

“Don’t knock off my husband,” Felix said. “I need to go now.”

“Yeah… Come back to me, okay?”

“I will come back. Rest yourself and stay safe until I come back.”

“I live for you, only,” Sylvain replied, stealing him another kiss.

Shorter but way more full of love.

Felix stepped backward. He glanced at his brother.

“I will come back in two or three days. Take all care of yourself and each other. Don’t force me to come kick your ass,” he groaned before turning around and moving away to the door.

“He hadn’t changed at all,” Dimitri groaned.

“He had changed so much,” Glenn commented at the exact same moment. He glanced at Dimitri. “Well then.”

He smiled slightly.

Dimitri watched him.

He still wished to believe he was real. If Glenn was real, alive…

“Oh quit with that!”

Dimitri’s eye widened again and he turned around to see at Glenn sat on the edge of the barrier along the stairs.

“You can’t have me back, you know it. And you really believe at this?” he pursued. “You are alone. Die.”

“When… When both of you?” Dimitri said to Sylvain.

He wanted to hold tight on this.

“You told me to confess,” Sylvain replied. “I was so scared he would never open his eyes again and when I saw his beautiful eyes… I just…”

Sylvain smiled.

“What had happened?” Glenn asked.

“Nothing,” they both replied, as if they had a survival instinct.

Glenn frowned. He then turned his head to Dimitri. He gave him a kind smile. Sylvain paced backward, slowly, going toward the stairs. Glenn glanced at him then smiled again to Dimitri.

“I know your feeling… You and I, we should wash ourselves and get something to eat.”

“Together?”

Glenn laughed.

“You want us to go in the bath together?”

“I want it…? Yes… Probably. Yes…” Dimitri whispered.

He felt a hand on his forehead.

“You feel alright, little lion?”

“Why?” the Prince wondered.

“Because you’re talking alone,” Glenn said.

“I talked alone… You hadn’t… offered a bath and food?”

“Not yet. But you’re right… I will pour you a bath, you really need one.”

“And you too…”

“Yes,” Glenn smiled.

“So perhaps we can take it together.”

Dimitri glanced at the other Glenn. He was so confuse. It was so painful. He didn’t know who was talking, he didn’t know if… those words were real. But this Glenn, even this Felix, was nicer. The Ghosts flying around him were always so mean, asking for blood, for murder, pestering him until he felt bad.

But here…

“Have… you proposed we take the bath together?” Dimitri asked.

“No. But if you need someone with you…”

“I need…” Dimitri glanced at the ghost. “Please… I want to be sure you won’t vanish.”

Glenn wanted to say ‘I’m there, Dimitri’ but he felt it would be the worst to say. So he just nodded and took softly his hand to bring him in the bathroom.

His hair down, still a bit wet, Glenn was searching after his dear Prince.

He had taking care of him, making sure he was totally clean, his hair blond and soft again; bringing him to the kitchen so he could eat. The man really needed to have food. And some new marks. After having done all of this, Glenn had taken a bit of time for him, making sure his scars were clean not to risk a new infection like last year, washing him from the blood, the dirt, the War… but he couldn’t really push it away…

He really had needed to have a few seconds for him but now… where Dimitri was?

He wasn’t worry, honestly, because his father was there and he truly hoped Dimitri would feel the same ease as him. It was a place they knew. A place they loved and with so many good memories… they could only come back.

But Dimitri was still a bit weird and it would have been careless not to search him to hold him back if he started to attack a servant or anyone…

As he searched, he heard voices. Familiar and distant at once.

He approached them, half lost in the fog created by his own brain…

“…ve warned Ingrid. She would be there tonight. Tomorrow maybe if things go hard. Perhaps I will go meet her and accompany her until…”

“I trust her.”

It was his father’s voice!

“Me too. She would knock down and kill more people than I can. But she is important and a hand would always be…”

“I understand your eager but you should rest. And be by the side of your Prince. Dimitri won’t accept your father’s advices. He would want you by his side and you have to…”

“Dimitri should rest. I should go back to War.”

“Dimitri is the Prince, the future King. The Hope we waited.”

“Your Grace! I have no mean to counter your words but… Dimitri _needs_ rest. He is not doing alright. He can’t guide our troops. If he does, he will kill them all.”

“Don’t you trust your King?”

“I trust my friend! But he is not able to do it. Your Grace, with all the respect I have for you, you have to keep leading our troop if we want to survive at this War. We can’t take the risk to lose any other Generals or Bastion. I… I won’t rest longtime here,” he said.

Glenn frowned.

“Felix…”

“I know. I had to see him again…”

“You almost missed him. He is really stubborn and make him stay has been a challenge.”

“I’m sorry and thank you. I really had to see him again if it is the last time. I will go to Sreng. If we can have their help…”

Sylvain. It was Sylvain… Now, Glenn was sure about it. He closed his eyes.

“When will you leave?”

“I want to see Ingrid and Felix before leaving. Then, I won’t lose more time.”

“I see.”

Glenn pushed open the door. “So you leave?”

Sylvain tensed when he saw him. “Yes, Sir…” He gulped. “Wil you stay? Someone has to take care of Dima…”

“So **_I_** should do it?”

“Glenn,” Rodrigue said.

“Yes, father?”

“If you want me to do it, very well,” Sylvain said. But I can’t bring him at Sreng and I really believe…” 

“It’s fine. I will take care of Dimitri and you can leave as soon as you want.”

“Great.”

Sylvain walked toward the door. Glenn was still in front of it so he just stepped on the side so the young man could step outside. He watched him as he was taking the stairs, putting distance between them.

“When Ingrid will be there, we expect you to tell us how this miracle is possible. How you have survived.”

Glenn had the feeling he was saying it again and again lately but he understood and he just nodded with a little smile.

At least he would say it once for all.

Felix wouldn’t be there probably bus his father or Ingrid or even Sylvain could tell him.

“Didn’t you use to like Sylvain?” Rodrigue asked.

“Of course? I still like him…?”

“You’re very good at hiding it,” the man replied.

“He is dating my little brother, now.”

“I see,” the man said. “Do you want to come with me to help me with the plans?” Rodrigue offered.

“With pleasure, yes. But then, I will have to find Dimitri again. Sylvain wasn’t totally wrong… I am still appointed at Dimitri’s retinue. I won’t leave him…”

“He is in the garden,” Rodrigue said. “He ate and then just sat on a bench. He started to look in the distance.”

“Thank you.”

Sat on the bench, Dimitri was looking away but… he wasn’t seeing anything. Not the birds happily flying away nor the cold leaves moving in the breeze. Soon, those leaves would fall on the floor and it would only remain the very cold air of winter but for now, the weather still tried to be warm. As warm it could be in Faerghus, especially in those lands.

Dimitri couldn’t see neither the endless movement of the servants that came to the well or tried to prepare the garden before it would be plunged under a thick layer of snow. Here, there wasn’t really an Autumn period, as much as they weren’t sure you could talk about a real Summer? Here, the Winter appeared out of the blue and so, it wasn’t surprising there still were flowers all around. The servants were protecting Rodrigue’s favorite flowers so they could reborn next year. Doing this, they had managed to save them for twenty-two years. Since Rodrigue’s wife died, giving birth to her second son…

But Dimitri wasn’t seeing it. He wasn’t seeing the last glimpse of blue before they were covered by a thin neat.

Glenn watched them.

For a few seconds, there just was there. Distant memories… His promise to a grave that he would take care of his baby brother and make sure he would never lack of love.

Distant memories…

Nine years…

“Little lion?”

Glenn walked toward the bench and sat next to Dimitri. Dimitri who turned his head toward him. He stared and evaluated him, trying to discover if he was real or not. He knew his Glenn hadn’t all those scars but he was so mean, he could start to shapeshift…

They were talking almost in the same way…

But this one was always so kind.

If it was him…

“How do you feel?”

It was probably him.

“Hmpf… you?”

“Hmpf too, I suppose.”

Dimitri looked in the distance again. Glenn could understand he didn’t want to talk with him. It was good to just be next to him. He looked him then the garden, so beautiful. It had missed it.

“Can I stay next to you?”

Dimitri watched him with a big eye.

He moved his hand, grabbing Glenn’s. His fingers caressed it, just a little, a tiny stroke.

“Please. Just… stay.”

“Thank you.”

“Eh, uh… Sir?”

Glenn opened an eye. He was dozing under the Sun, having Dimitri’s hand squeezing his, and his head against his shoulder. His own head was pressing against the blond mane. Still a bit dry and wild but decent.

Glenn looked at Sylvain who was in the threshold.

“Ingrid is there, the food has been served and we should go eat quickly before it remains nothing.”

“Stop being mean,” Glenn said.

“No, he is right,” Dimitri groaned.

“I am right. When she turned into a pretty young lady, she also started to eat more. And every occasion is a feast for her!” He shrugged. “Anyway, you know her situation… It’s War… Better for her to eat. You come or…”

Sylvain rubbed his nape.

“Yeah,” Glenn said. He got up, Dimitri moving slightly to letting him do, and tug softly on his hand. “You come too, little Lion?”

Dimitri was staring at him.

They had passed hours in silence. Just like that and it was really at his pleasure. And now… Now, he was watching him as they were walking toward the dining room. Sylvain accompanied them but stayed mute. They were all mute there and while they have been silent for hours, him and Glenn, in a very calm and peaceful way, there, it was way different. You could actually feel the tension all around, like a powerful and dense fog.

When they arrived in the room, they heard a gasp and then, Glenn and Dimitri both got hugged.

“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this!! Both of you!”

Ingrid was fighting against her sobs. She had been warned, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to hold them. She had wanted to see Glenn coming back so often. She had dreamed of it… but he was dead. And now he wasn’t!

And as for Dimitri… Her, like the others, was absolutely sure he was alive but without proof, they couldn’t do anything else than… hoping.

And now, hope was over in the most delightful way.

“You are both there! I can’t believe this… Let me look at you…”

Dimitri stared her with a groan but she didn’t care. He was there… She couldn’t believe he was there. She wanted to hug him more and there was no such thing as eating in her mind anymore. No matter the soft smell of the pork behind her or the apple cooked in compote nor the potatoes perfumed with butter.

“And you…”

She moved her hands to pass them on Glenn’s cheeks. He smiled and hugged her.

“Ingrid. It is so good to see you. You changed so much!”

“You too! Glenn!”

She snuggled in his arms and he embraced her more.

“I missed you so much…”

“Me too, my little Knight,” he said.

She moved away from him to see him in the eyes. “Do you know I have started to ride a Pegasus? I’m not a Knight yet but wait a little, I will!”

“I’m sure you will!”

“Come sit next to me. I want to hear everything! How have you survived? Both of you!”

Ingrid took their hands, one to each of them, and brought them to the table. Dimitri groaned and let her do. He just sat next to Glenn. He also let him start because he didn’t want to talk anyway.

He preferred the silence.

But he listened to Glenn.

Of course he would.

He loved the sound of his voice and he also noticed the voice was softer, nicer than the one who accompanied him for nine years.

How it ended like that?

At what moment Glenn’s voice started to be that cold and mean when he was talking to him?

He didn’t know…

Now that this Glenn was there, talking with such a warm tone, he started questioning everything. He was so gentle, delicate… there was happiness in his voice. Light but there…

He stared him, telling once again how he survived. Telling how he had moved heaven and earth to find him. Why so much dedication?! For him…

Why?

It was such a non-sense…

While Dimitri was going in his room, where he was sure he wouldn’t have to talk with anyone, not to have to get Rodrigue’s hug or Ingrid attention, Glenn was just taking a bit more of time. Talking with his father, he could know a bit more about the plan of Felix and when or if he would come back. The prime problem, and Ingrid kept saying so, was the fact Felix had no plan so it was hard to know…

Though, Ingrid and Sylvain were both telling him there was no risks.

His father too.

But Glenn couldn’t help.

As the dinner was more than over, the dessert, that Dimitri had refused even though they had prepared cheese, Sylvain helped clear the table. It was something he always did because, when he was younger, it was reassuring to be there, with adults around. Sometimes, he would clean with them. Stay as much as possible with them. But it always came a moment where he was left alone.

Sadly, he felt this again…

Not as violent but… this house, suddenly, wasn’t that warm. He was afraid to do mistakes…

Glenn always looked him with… such a look.

It was frightening…

Sylvain forced himself to leave the room because he couldn’t do the dishes here, especially at this hour, without worrying someone, and he walked toward the stairs.

A shadow covered his tall stature when he approached the steps.

Looking at his feet, he hadn’t noticed it immediately, but now…

Glenn was standing in the stairs and stared at him, his arms folded.

“Uh… Hello, Sir? Is it… something?”

“I’m just checking on you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re you. You run after every lady you can see. I don’t want you to hurt my brother with your bad behavior.”

“I…” Sylvain pressed his forehead with his fingers. “Sir, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you think that about me. I love Felix, I always do and I would never hurt him. I swear.” He closed his eyes. “You don’t need to trust me if you don’t want to. It’s legit you are worrying. I know who I am… Though… since you’re there, Sir, I’d like to talk to you about Dima…”

“What?”

Glenn frowned.

“A few years ago… Dima started to act a bit weird. After your… not-death, he said he was seeing you. I thought it was normal but he kept being… I don’t know what but I saw his look. Be careful with him, please, Sir… He looks lost. I don’t know if it’s still the same than before. Seeing you alive… It has been a shock for all of us but for him, it must be worst.” He closed his eyes again then looked away. “Can I leave? I want to check on Ingrid…”

Glenn stared him.

“Of course.”

Glenn stepped away and Sylvain quickly climbed the stairs, his head down…

The Knight watched him and frowned before swirled on himself and going to his room too. Well… Dimitri’s room. He didn’t want to sleep somewhere else anyway. It was safer for Dimitri and he was still on that fog. It was better.

Glenn went to the room and knocked at Dimitri’s door, entering only when he get the authorization.

He walked in and watched the Prince, laying on the bed.

“Ready to sleep?” Glenn asked.

“I’m not sleepy,” Dimitri said. “I am thinking about the blood of my enemies…” He groaned.

Glenn watched him.

“Don’t you want to kill those who killed your King?” Dimitri wondered.

He looked him, his mad eye toward him.

“I only think about protecting those I love,” Glenn said.

“Didn’t you love my father?”

“Can I?” Glenn asked.

He showed his boots. Dimitri nodded and the Fraldarius removed his coat, his boots and also his blouse that was itching after a whole day. Dimitri watched him and moved his arm to accept him in the bed. In his arms.

He wanted to feel him again, like this morning…

“I loved your father. And your stepmother. But I love _you_ more. I don’t want you to suffer, chasing those enemies…”

“I will kill them all,” Dimitri groaned.

“And then what?”

The Prince watched him.

He was still thinking how much he was nice, kind, gentle… He never did anything without asking him. Well, except knocking him out. But through his madness, he knew he deserved it…

“I planned to die.”

“I don’t want you to die,” Glenn said.

The Prince moved his other hand. He slid them in Glenn’s hair, removing the tie and caressing the long and thin dark blue mane.

“I never wanted you to die…” Dimitri whispered.

“I guess it makes me stay alive… Finding you back, coming back to you… It was my duty and what makes me continue…”

“You came back for me?” the Prince repeated.

“Of course…”

Glenn brushed the wounded eye. He still didn’t know how he had been injured that way but it wasn’t the question at this exact moment.

“And… you don’t want me to die?”

“Of course not. I want you to live. Enjoy your life… You deserve it, little Lion. You have lost too much too early. I just want your happiness…”

Dimitri moved his hand, lightly touched the side of his waist. Thin but muscular… and covered by an ancient scar made because of him.

“I don’t need to die to deserve you?” Dimitri repeated.

He looked very confuse.

And that was the worst to Glenn.

How could he want… He reminded Sylvain’s words and felt a bit of rage in his guts. What Dimitri’s mind had done to him? How could Dimitri believe those he loved could see him dead when he was so precious. Not only as a Prince, but as a being. As a friend. With a loving and strong embrace.

“Of course you don’t need to die. I expect you to life. Wanting you to die is not an act of love. I don’t hate you, little Lion, I _love_ you.”

Dimitri leaned over him, his hand passing on Glenn’s cheek and brushing his chin.

“What?” Glenn asked, in surprise.

“I love you too,” Dimitri said, his lips brushing his as he talked. “I always loved you.”

Glenn’s heart started to race in his chest. His mind wanted to say ‘I don’t love you that way’ but his heart was clearly asking him to just keep quiet while his lips… encountered those wanting him so much. And those… he wanted as well.


	6. What I have done?

Water splashed on Glenn face as he leaned over the huge sink filled with water, especially for those kinds of case and quick washing. Well… Not really those kinds of case because Glenn was spraying his face with the cold water because he had kissed his brother’s childhood friend, his Prince… And certainly, that shouldn’t happen very often.

A part of his mind insisted it was bad but the rest of his body just reminded him how good the kiss had been, how the embrace of his muscular arms had been enthralling. He couldn’t remember what happened after. It was normal but in this case, frightening. He woke up in his arms, and loved this too much.

And so, now, he was hoping cold water would help to sort his ideas…

He doubted a lot about this maneuver to be honest because all he wanted was run away. And also shake Dimitri to know what they have done last night.

Which he couldn’t.

He didn’t want to worry him and… he wanted him to do that again.

But this was wrong!

And he wasn’t even sure he loved him that much? Like… Of course he loved him! He was so devoted to him! But like that? That much? Why would he have accepted the kiss if it wasn’t pure feelings?

Why…

Ugh!

Glenn splashed more water on his face.

He had to order his thoughts. He had to be sure about what he was doing, what he wanted to do…

Perhaps he could ask Ingrid to come train with him? She would be delighted and he would be very happy to pass some time with her. And he really hoped this would help me. If it wasn’t to sort his ideas, at least to forget the passion within him. He didn’t want to forget it completely but… if he could put it on pause, perhaps?

Just a bit more of time…

Glenn left the room and searched after Ingrid, avoiding every look. He had the feeling they could all know. They could see through his own feeling…

They could see more than he was able to see…

His head still confuse, the hair undone and ruffled, wearing only a blouse he had quickly put on, Glenn climbed down the stairs. He moved to the dining hall, hoping to find Ingrid there.

But he encountered her before reaching the room in question.

Her lips and her happy look was enough to say, though, he would have met her at this place if he had been a bit faster to get over yesterday’s event.

She was with Sylvain who complimented her on her hair. And offered to take care of her Pegasus too. Ingrid loved to take care of the beast and so did Sylvain. He loved being around animals because he never feared they would hurt him…

“Oh, look, he is there!” Sylvain said.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Well… That looks like Glenn…” Sylvain moved his hands, as if he tried to have only a view of Glenn’s face. “Hmm… Yup! That’s Glenn! Go ask him?”

“That’s stupid,” she groaned.

“Ask me what?” Glenn asked, walking toward them.

“Go,” Sylvain said.

She looked at him. And bit her lower lip.

“I know you are busy and you certainly want to pass a bit of time with your family… but I hoped you would come with me, pass some time maybe?” she offered.

“Ingrid.” He walked toward her. “First, you are a part of the family. You always have been.”

She smiled to him, relieved.

“And, secondly, I wanted to ask you to come to train. But if you want to do something else…?”

“Training is fine!” she said. “I would be delighted!”

He held out his hand to her. She grabbed it and so he led her to the training room where they have been so often.

“I see your hair is so long now! You let them grow?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t it annoying for fighting? Mine kept annoying me. Father didn’t want me to cut them because, he said, it would be better for a man to have an elegant wife with long hair but I pretended they had been cut by a sword at War. They were just… so annoying…”

“They can be annoying but I’m fine. When you have to deal with scars and changing your dominant hand, hair is the latest thing. And I am very pretty,” he smiled.

“It is true!” she laughed.

As they talked about his hair, he couldn’t help but think again at Dimitri’s hand sliding in them, so kindly.

It was impossible, then, to forget about it… isn’t it?

Everything was bringing him back to Dimitri.

But now, he only wanted to pass a bit of time with Ingrid. She deserved it.

Yes.

That hadn’t worked at all.

While Glenn enjoyed the time he had passed with Ingrid, he couldn’t empty his mind. He wanted to see Dimitri again, talk to him, see his eye and perhaps… probably… certainly another kiss.

More.

He was just so confuse about last night and kept wondering if he should ask Dimitri or…

Though, Glenn had done his best to stay aware of Ingrid, replying to her question, learning trick from her and showing her the news he got. But not all of them. He needed to be cautious. Just in case…

You always must be ready to be betrayed.

Even by your family…

Even by your own body…

Glenn searched in the big Mansion after Dimitri. He needed to put that down because… what could be a good warrior if he wasn’t even able to know… Perhaps Dimitri didn’t know what he was doing neither? Both of them had lacked of human contact for so long…

“Ah! Sylvain?”

“Yep?” he said, pasting his back against the wall and folding his arms.

“Have you seen the Prince?”

“Sure. I gave him food and he fled away outside,” he replied. “Where is Ingrid? I need to give her back her Pegasus’ brush. Won’t let that anywhere.”

“She is still at the training room.”

“’Kay, thank you.”

Sylvain moved, following the wall. Glenn looked at him with a frown. And then, he walked again, going to the garden. As he went outside, he could only think again about yesterday, the afternoon they passed together… He kept thinking about that War too. They couldn’t stay happily here while others were suffering. After all, both Ingrid and Sylvain said they wouldn’t stay long.

Felix was absent.

But he still believed Dimitri’s wellbeing was important.

Sylvain said so too…

He frowned again as he approached the bench where Dimitri was sat.

“Little Lion?”

Dimitri moved on the side, allowing him to sit next to him. Glenn complied without a word. Not talking was fine. He wanted to touch him, to see if he would have the same… bolt as before. Was it yesterday only? Was it… He felt a rush in his entire body and he was pretty sure it wasn’t caused by the cold air of Faerghus coming tickle his scars…

Glancing at him, Glenn moved his hand on the side, approaching it from Dimitri’s. His finger brushed the pinky of the Prince. Which moved his hand, taking it.

“You are real… isn’t it?” he asked.

Glenn approached him slightly.

“I’m real. I ignore how I can ease you, but I am real.”

“It is still hard to believe it.”

“I understand… when I left, everybody said you were dead.”

“Why were you searching me?” Dimitri asked.

“I hoped,” Glenn replied.

“I don’t understand why you would make so much effort. I don’t deserve your love…”

“It is not a question of deserving or not. I care for you. Not only because they said to me I have to. Not only because you are Felix’s best friend.”

“Was,” Dimitri groaned.

“Was? What had happened? He looked weird yesterday but…”

“He saw me murder rebels. They have deserved it… I ripped their limbs apart… with my bare hands sometimes. And since then… he call me as I am. A Boar… He doesn’t want to approach me anymore. Except with Ingrid and Sylvain… and yet.”

“You… ripped their limbs apart?”

“Do you want to see?” he asked.

Glenn’s eyes widened.

“To see you… doing a rampage?”

“Yes?”

“Well… No? But thank you for the proposition?” Glenn stared him. “Perhaps I will see it when we will go to War. I expect being by your side when the moment will come. But you should take your time…”

“I can go there. I will bring you back Edelgard’s head.”

“I don’t need this,” Glenn replied.

“You don’t need this? She almost killed you, she killed your King.”

“I sure was attached to your father and your stepmother but I am more attached to _you_. You are alive. You are fine and… I know you want to avenge your beloved but it’s not necessarily the solution. Have you think about talking? You said it was Edelgard? Who?”

“Edelgard Von Hresvelg…”

“Wait… you think she would have killed her own mother? For what reason? Those years let me know that Duscur had no reason to attack our King. But Edelgard Von Hresvelg? I remember her… she liked your father too…”

“I know what I say. And father and mother ask for her doom.”

Glenn frowned.

But he knew Dimitri had acted weirdly by the past… He moved his other hand, passing it in Dimitri’s hairs. And… it was incredibly pleasant. He had to calm down his ideas because if he didn’t calmed down, he might want to kiss him again. He already knew he wanted to end up every night in his bed, in his arms…

And he still didn’t know if it was bad or not…

“Will you stay inside a bit more?”

“Why?” Dimitri asked.

“I don’t know what happened to you in nine years… I know you changed and that’s normal. But I’m worrying. I used to know a little boy who was so clever, loving others and taking care of them… Your touch still can be delicate and I believe this cleverness still exist within you. If Edelgard has ruined your family and neat to be stopped, I will support you. But for now, it looks like madness. Not you…”

He squeezed softly his hand, watching him.

The Prince could have muttered ‘perhaps’ because there was sense in those words, yes.

“Are you watching my eyepatch?” he asked instead.

“No,” Glenn laughed. “A bit!” he corrected. “I’m trying to look you in the eyes and that’s not easy.”

Dimitri moved his other hand to remove the eyepatch. He blinked and Glenn twitched his fingers to the ugly scar.

“Better?”

“You see… You are so sweet…Can you see a bit with it?”

“Stains. Spots… You have adorable mottles.”

Glenn stuck out his tongue.

“I still can see your tongue with my other eye,” Dimitri said.

He leaned toward him, his lips almost brushing the tongue that Glenn put inside without thinking. He closed his eyes, holding back a ‘sorry’ and pressed, however, their forehead together. Which made him, in fact, get up. And he could feel Dimitri’s arm around him.

“I was fighting brigands… or people of the Empire… or the Alliance. I don’t remember and I don’t care…”

Glenn opened his eyes to watch him. He was so close and still so pretty. More than pretty, astonishing, stunning, gorgeous…

“I saw you… You were angry against me because I had refused to die for you and accepted to step out the jail. Dedue said he owed me his life, said I should life to spread Edelgard’s blood as my parents wished, protect my country… I accepted when I refused for Sylvain and your brother. Even hurting both of them… But you were there. And I lost my focus. One of them hit me at the eye. It wasn’t much at first but it got infected… someone healed me at some point. I don’t know who… and you stayed by my side since then… But now…” He frowned. “The other you, who said you were an imposter, abandoned me since yesterday… He wasn’t kind as you. That is the reason why I really want you to be real. To be my Glenn…”

“Little Lion…” He moved his thumb over the lips, softly. “I am your Glenn. Whatever if you believe I’m real or false, if my presence can make you happy, I will be always by your side.” He squeezed tenderly his hand. “I will always be by your side. You don’t know how much I care for you.”

“I don’t know… I wish I could. I want to hold you.”

“I want you to hold me…”

He truly believed it. But he was so confused… His feelings, his heart racing, his breath a bit shaking… And the fact he loved too much that Dimitri made him sat on his laps. That his arms embraced him. And when they pressed their forehead together again, it was very agreeable. Even more than before…

The question of what they did yesterday didn’t brush his mind one second because he was so needy of his lips, of a kiss. More kisses.

He would hate himself later, now… he wanted to give everything to Dimitri and just feel more the bliss of happiness.


	7. Pride

It was raining.

So hard.

Dimitri must have been dragged inside by Glenn because the Prince hadn’t realized what was happening or just didn’t care about smelling like wet Lion. He was used to stand under the rain, even that cold.

It was raining and you could hear it slam against the windows.

Everybody was eating in the dining hall. Dimitri with a bad mood, Ingrid with joy, Sylvain seemed uneasy and Glenn really hoped his father would never know why he kept sending glance to his Highness.

While the town was drenched by a cold deluge, the servants teemed all around to be sure everybody would have a hot bed, the front doors slammed open. The storm entered inside and certainly wasn’t alone.

Rodrigue was the first one to get up, especially because he could hear the servants getting excited or panicked by something. He stepped outside the room, his weapon in hand… but he wasn’t the only one to do so.

Ingrid got up, as well as Glenn who pressed his hand on Dimitri’s shoulder, hoping this would hold down the bloodthirsty Prince…

Sylvain would move as soon as he would be needed, for sure, but at this moment, he wanted this War to be over, still sat. And his spear wasn’t even around. His magic wasn’t very good but he could use it if needed…

“Felix?!” they all heard from the entry.

Sylvain jumped on his feet and dashed to the hall before everybody could do anything. He saw a soaked by the frozen rainstorm Felix. And yet, he was still red of blood.

“Felix!”

Others had come too and Glenn approached his brother. Sylvain stepped away and the only relieve he had was that Dimitri didn’t came. Felix seemed already enough in shock for that…

“All this blood…” Glenn said, holding out his hands to him.

“That’s not mine!” Felix roared.

“Felix, please… We are just worry for you,” Ingrid said.

“For me?! I’m fine! But we lost that damn Bastion!”

“That’s fine, Felix. That’s just a Bastion. We can have it back but look at you… Have you walked back from the War under that deluge? Where were you? What had happen…”

“Leave me alone,” he replied.

“Felix! Don’t talk to your brother that way!” Rodrigue groaned.

Felix whipped away the water from his face, spreading more blood at the time. Sylvain held out his hand toward him and his husband grabbed it as he walked to the stairs. He climbed them up, making little puddle of water, and perhaps blood, while going to his room.

“What is happening?” Glenn asked.

“Don’t be surprised,” Ingrid replied to him. “He is like that. Now…” she quickly added.

“I will see him. Something had happened visibly so…”

“Glenn, you shouldn’t…” Ingrid tried.

But Glenn didn’t listen to her. He really liked her and always cared for her mind but, for nine years, he hadn’t been able to be his big brother and he wished to be it. Especially because he was used to be the only one really able to calm his baby brother… He remembered that, yes, Sylvain was quite able to do it too but…

He really couldn’t stop himself.

If he could do something…

Glenn climbed the steps, avoiding the little pool that would be soon enough washed, and he went toward his brother’s room. He held out his hand to knock at the door but he stopped. He just heard words from the other side of the door.

“…am fine, that was their blood… I should have left earlier. If I was there one day before, I would have saved their lives.”

“You know you can’t live like that. There, let me help you,” Sylvain said.

Glenn closed his eyes, his hand pressing on the wall. Sometimes, he believed his memories issues could be a luck. At this moment, he was worrying he would forget that. Forget the sadness in his brother’s voice. He could want it, but… he wanted to be able to comfort him…

“I know. I’m just… sick of all of this. Sick of this War. Ironic, isn’t it?”

“You’re good to fight, not to spread blood everywhere. That’s all.”

“I don’t want to become like the Boar but let’s see things in face! I am!”

“You’re not. Come here…”

“I’m wet,” Felix groaned.

“Well, I…”

“Finish your sentence, I dare you!”

“Just come.”

Glenn pressed his head a bit more against the door. He knew it was bad… And he really hated himself for that at this exact moment but he was also helpless in front of… this. Sylvain easing him with words Glenn never thought any of them would need one day. He still saw his brother as if he was thirteen years old by time and he had realized that, though Felix was receiving the Fraldarius’ training, he never imagined him going to War…

See him coming back, soaked with blood, moved by the lives he had seen vanish in front of his eyes. Accepting to ravish a life to save others and hating yourself because friends or people under your responsibility were dying.

He never got the chance to reach this point.

He had to protect Dimitri and he did it with all his heart.

He did it well!

And for so long, he always thought, as long as he was protecting Dimitri, everything was okay. He had seen people die around him but he didn’t care, as long as his beloved survived…

And now…

This War…

On the other side of the door, there wasn’t a crybaby and a traumatized child anymore. There were two adults that had seen too much. And no hugs with tender kiss on the forehead would change any of this.

Not his hugs.

Not his kisses…

“Did Glenn say how he survived?”

Hearing his brother telling his name, Glenn could only move his head a bit up.

“Uh… yeah… He… he just fought against dead. Someone found him and…”

“And how do you find the Boar before house? Doesn’t he know our grounds?”

There was so much poison in his little brother’s voice. He should have pushed the door open, now.

“He is destabilized. He might have found him by hazard,” Sylvain replied, his voice unsure.

“For a liar, you lie very badly!” Felix groaned.

“Welp… I don’t lie to you?”

“So what?”

Glenn stepped backward. This time, he wished his memories would erase all of this. Felix would hate him… No… Felix already hated him. If not, why would he avoid him all the time? He knew he had to reach on him but to say what to him? He didn’t regret taking care of Dimitri. He didn’t regret having been a true Knight and having cared for his Prince first. But he wasn’t ready to disappoint one of the only one he didn’t want to disappoint.

“He loves you. He never believed you could need him. No one would have guessed you will become like that,” Sylvain said. “Not him, not me… I love the one you became. I would love you no matter what but he certainly saw only his little crybaby brother.”

“Sylvain!”

“Felix!” he replied.

You could hear tenderness in his voice.

“Don’t hate him for that,” he pursued. “You can’t know how much someone changes in nine years. But he is there and I know you just want to jump in his arms.”

“You annoy me…” Felix sighed. “And I want to be in your arms,” he added with a pouting tone.

“You’re a lucky guy! Those arms want to hug you so much!”

Glenn stepped backward again. A feeling of void moved inside of him, swallowing his gut, closing around his heart. And… he wasn’t even mad or sad.

Somewhat…

He was glad.

All the evening after that, Glenn had wanted to go back to his brother’s room to bring a bit of food but he never did. He couldn’t interfere. He truly wanted to and worried for him not having swallowed anything since… too long. His little brother must certainly starve…

Though, he couldn’t always intervene.

Sylvain was taking care of all of this.

Sylvain was taking care of Felix.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about his little brother, what he missed, what he did wrong. For nine years. A part of his brain was trying to remove some years because it really wasn’t his fault, but… he couldn’t.

And he still felt resent toward himself because he was laying in Dimitri’s bed. He could hear the rain lashing the windows, the same rain that drenched his brother earlier and he was enjoying too much the fingers passing again and again in his long hair. He loved that too much. He loved too much to be against Dimitri, hug him back, his fingers passing along the scars of his back. His pinky jumped on another scar, on the arm. He didn’t talk with him because his mind was buzzing, busy.

But loving Dimitri? He could do that mindlessly.

It seemed so normal.

It was so frightening…

It was still so confuse…

And yet, he lowered his lips to kiss a scar on Dimitri’s arm, following the white outline.

The Prince moved his hand, opening the blouse, allowing he was making him more comfortable… and could get a glimpse of his body. Thin and yet muscular…though Glenn believed Dimitri had nothing to envy him. In contrary. With this waistline making him shiver, and those powerful muscles. And this strength, and he was so tall… and he wanted to touch him all the time.

While hoping no one would see him.

Ingrid hadn’t show any desire to renew the vows they have been forced to have so it must be okay… but his father would perhaps not see in a good eye such relation? He seemed to accept Sylvain and Felix’s relationship but… Dimitri was his Prince, their Prince, the future King. The Hope… He was affected to his retinue, not to kiss gently his muscles while swooning over the other arm hugging him and the fingers still passing in his hair. It was too good…

His mind was slowly cancelling everything else. He was still in a fog, but it was a nice and tender fog.

The blouse fell on the floor and Dimitri started to undo the shirt, undoing the buttons.

“You have a fair amount of clothes.”

“I always suffer coldness,” Glenn replied. “More fun for you, you seem to enjoy too much removing those layers.”

“I love to touch you.” Dimitri leaned and kissed his throat. “Your contact is easing me,” he confessed.

“Hmm…I’m glad to know I can ease you.” Glenn pushed up Dimitri’s ample tank, allowing to show his firm pectorals and the scars on his skin. “You ease me too,” he added.

He leaned to kiss the cross scar on his left pectoral.

Dimitri shivered. He removed the last layer covering the chest of the Knight. Glenn let him do and passed his arms around him after that, caressing his shoulder, lowering to the scapula, kissing his face.

And then, he moved away his arms.

“You’re almost naked, little Lion, and I’m not… this look unfair. Will you hold me tight in your arms if I remove my clothes. I get easily cold,” he added with a wink.

“Glenn?” Dimitri wondered, taking his hand.

“Yes? That’s me…” He swore softly, kissing his wounded eyelid.

“It’s… I already have removed your clothes? You’re fine?”

Glenn looked down and understood why he was feeling so cold. With an air as cold as Faerghus, it could happen out of the blue. Without having clothes removed.

But he was half-naked, indeed…

“Are you alright?” Dimitri wondered.

The sweetness in his eyes was what Glenn remembered. He had the feeling his soft Dimitri was coming back and while he liked the look of the feral one, it was relieving.

At least, he was looking like that when he was around him.

“Yes… I… have some issues,” Glenn whispered.

“What do you mean?”

Dimitri moved away from him.

“Nothing contagious!” Glenn protested.

The Prince sat in the bed, looking at him. But his eye wasn’t full of doubt or fear. Only worries.

Seeing this puppy look, or lion cub look, Glenn sat on the bed too. He was shivering, the coldness hitting his skin but he tried to ignore it, or hope his hair could warm him up a little?

“I’m back after nine years but I wasn’t absent that long for the pleasure. My right arm doesn’t function correctly and I had to learn to become a left-handed. My body still suffers from some of my lesions and…”

The part to come was the hardest for him to confess. He didn’t want to have secret for his Prince, for someone as close to him as Dimitri but he was a bit ashamed anyway. It was something he tried to hide usually. Even though he was almost sure his father had already guessed it.

Sylvain too, perhaps.

He was acting weird with him.

But twenty-four years old Sylvain was really weird…

Dimitri leaned on the side of the bed and retrieved his heavy and warm cape. He passed it around Glenn. He looked even tinier. And also cuter. Perhaps because he was blushing a little. Or smiling tenderly? The Prince caressed his wounded scar. Glenn’s fingers appeared under the coat and pressed softly against his…

“You don’t have to tell it to me if you don’t feel it…”

“My memory is… it’s in a fog. A constant fog. I forget things that just happened. I lost sense of where I am… I can handle it here because I grew here. I know everything… But I don’t know if I will ever be able to remember I have to go back in this room if I left it. Sometimes, I forget Felix isn’t thirteen anymore… I got myself lost so often while searching you. Usually, I try to hide it.”

“I understand. I tried to pretend for long…”

Glenn watched him.

“… that I didn’t see Ghosts.” He frowned. “Illusions… Now seeing you there, I realize… they never have been Ghosts…”

Glenn approached him and kissed him tenderly. “I know what they told you… I wish you will not listen to them anymore.”

“I still want to spread Edelgard’s blood on the ground… Make her pay.”

The Knight stared him.

“I want you as Advisor, however,” Dimitri said, taking Glenn’s hand to press a kiss on his knuckles. “As long as you accept to stay with me, I hope being able to always remain your beacon in this fog.”

Glenn watched him with a tender smile.

His little Lion could have big and beautiful words. And it was quite charming him. Even more when he watched his shy smile, his way to look down…

“Thank you.” Glenn passed his hand on his cheek. “I wish not to forget any moment passing with you.”

“I will remind them to you,” Dimitri swore.

Well… if he didn’t mistaken them for those with this illusion…

But perhaps Glenn wouldn’t even know it and he would be saved!

For now, he just leaned on him to kiss him dearly.

Again and again.

Straightening suddenly, Glenn was hiccupping. A nightmare, the memories of War. Once again… How many time did he revived those moments? They were deeply engraved within him…

He felt so bad at this moment.

It was hard to breathe. He needed a bit of air.

There was an arm around him. The arm of one of his enemy? He moved away, fear making throb his brain in his skull. He felt nausea.

“Glenn?” a voice groaned.

He moved away, unable to recognize it.

He didn’t know where he was and the memories of the War was swallowing him wholly.

Where was the Prince? He had to protect him.

His back hit the door and he quickly opened it. As he slammed it close, he searched for a weapon. But he had nothing. Except a coat. So warm and pleasant. With a smell… a smell that eased him without he could even understand. And yet.

“Sir Glenn?”

Glenn swirled on himself.

A servant was holding a candle. The light was casting red gleam all around and the Knight managed to recognize his home.

He was at home.

The Prince must go well but then…

“Felix…”

Glenn swirled on himself and walked toward the door of his little brother. It was still the same since he was five. With a cat drew with ink. Their father had been so mad at Felix… until he saw his cute smile, full of joy. Then, he had let him do because seeing him happy…

There were others cats here and there.

But the time had started to erase some of them…

Glenn pushed open the door. He was still in the fog of fear and hoped he hadn’t been awaken by a mystic connection between his brother and him because he was doing another nightmare himself.

“Felix?” he asked, panicked.

As he looked into the bed, he didn’t see any blue dark mane.

“Glenn? Sir?” Sylvain groaned in the bed. “Fe’ is fine… He got called at a War Council…” He rubbed his face. “He is extra bad at this but that ease the troops…”

“A War Council but he is…”

Sylvain turned his head toward him.

“Sir… He is adult.”

Hiding a yawn, the man sat in the bed. He saw the distress on the face looking so much like his lovely husband’s.

“Sir… We are in 1184, you have been absent nine years and you are back since four days here… with the Prince.”

“It… is right… Yes…”

“Fe’ will be good,” he said. “I can send him to your ro… wait. You still sleep with Dima or not?”

Glenn frowned.

“Oh don’t look me like that,” he laughed. “You are wrapped in his coat!”

The man watched him in the eyes. Sylvain cleared his throat, looking away.

“I mean…”

“Sylvain…”

Glenn walked toward him. The reality started to come back to him. Dimitri’s arms around him, the night with him, the soft words, the age of his brother, the War…

And Sylvain.

“Why don’t you call me Glenn like before?”

“Because you want to kill me for marrying your brother?” Sylvain smirked.

“I don’t want to kill you. I like you… I always liked you.”

“Have you seen how you act when I’m around your brother?”

“You are Sylvain. I like you but you are still this heartthrob!”

“Eh, wait a second! I am Sylvain but I love Fe’ more than anything in the World. I would live for him! He is all the time in my mind, I would do anything for him. I married him! Please, don’t think I’m using him…”

Glenn nodded. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid because I love my brother but… you love him, I see it. And I saw how you took care of everybody. Felix, Ingrid… Dimitri. I suppose you have taken care of them for those nine years?”

“Yes, you weren’t there, someone has to do it. I certainly wasn’t as good as you…”

Glenn approached a bit more and passed his hand in the red ruffled hair.

“You certainly made everything right. Felix loves you, Ingrid always liked you and I’m sure Dimitri has great affection for you. You are doing right. More than that. And I’m sorry for my absence. I hope Miklan hadn’t hurt you too much while I was away.”

“You weren’t there, that’s fine. But thank you?”

“If you need me to kick his ass?”

“He is dead.” Sylvain rubbed his nape. “I killed him…”

“Are you okay?” Glenn asked.

“Uh… Not always?”

“Can I sit?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Sylvain moved on the side, letting him sit down. Glenn closed a bit more the warm coat around him and installed himself next to the redhead.

“It’s fine, you know… Some days are just though. Especially when Fe’ isn’t there. We take care of each other. He is the best! You should be proud of your brother! He became someone so awesome. He is a bit… hard to deal with at first but you will see!”

“He doesn’t want to see me.”

“What are you saying? He loves you!”

“I heard you yesterday… When he was all angry.”

“You were eavesdropping? That’s bad!”

“I still can tick you off. Take care!”

“I’m afraid again!” Sylvain smiled.

In fact, he was a bit afraid, very in the inside…

Glenn had this aura, he was strong and Felix loved him dearly. What if he hurt Glenn while wanting to protect himself and Felix would hate on him?

He would choose Glenn over him.

“Felix is just busy. On the nerves… And you have been a lot around Dima. He doesn’t deal well with him.”

Glenn caressed his hair. “You have grown so much Sylvain José Fraldarius…”

Sylvain smiled. The name… It was so good.

“I am really proud of you, Sylvain.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

Sylvain smiled, tears in his eyes. He held out his arms. “Hug?” he asked.

Glenn smiled and took him in his arms, he pressed their cheeks together, rubbing softly his shoulder.

“You will really leave for Sreng?”

“Yep. But I would send you letters and all! It’s so good to see you back!”

“I will send you a lot of letters too!”

“Thank you!”

“But I wanted to ask… could you bring Felix there?”

“Felix? Why?”

“He is your husband? And he would be away from the War? I know there is all this duty we have been raised in but if it serves the War…”

Sylvain shook his head. “Felix doesn’t care about duty. He cares about people. He won’t follow me to Sreng. And, more important, I won’t bring him away from you. He can finally see you again.”

“You really changed, my little Sylvain. I can’t believe who you became.”

“You can say again you’re proud of me,” Sylvain smiled.

“I am very _very_ proud of you,” Glenn swore, hugging him.

“Thank you. I am proud of you too, of course! And… I will send Felix see you. He really loves you. So much. Don’t doubt it… He is a bit sad about stuff but he loves you so much. I will leave to Sreng and he will have all the time for you. Well… Pretty much all the time, it is still War after all.”

“Don’t force him. I believe you as for his love. I can’t wait to really talk to him. Discover him again? He is my little brother, I love him and I miss him…”

Sylvain hugged him.

“Soon, you will see!”

“Thank you. You sure you don’t want to talk about anything?”

“I do!” Sylvain looked him. “Dima’s coat. Why? What happened!”

“You… You really want to know?” Glenn sighed. “It’s so confuse for me. You know stuff about love, isn’t it?”

“I love your brother more than anything in the World, so yes.”

“How do you know you love?”

“Oh…” Sylvain lied on the bed, staring the cellar through the Darkness. “Guess it’s different for everybody.” He turned his head toward Glenn. “Do you think you love Dima?”

“Maybe?”

It was hard to explain.

“Well… Do you want to be with him now?”

Glenn closed his eyes. They hadn’t stop talking and his mind had been all focused on this but now he was asking this question, of course his mind was running to Dimitri. Thought it wasn’t a classical running like ‘you said his name so I think about him’, because he was thinking about the talk, the embrace… His eye, his tenderness, the smell of Dimitri still invading him. The fact he loved to be wrapped in this coat, loved touching the Prince, talking with him.

“Yes.”

“Does the time fly when you are with him?”

“Yes,” Glenn replied without a second of hesitation. “Even when we do nothing.”

“You mean like…” Sylvain gasped.

“No! Can you stop thinking about that? And I swear if you have touched my…”

“Uh oh!”

“I’m going to…”

“Yes! Probably!”

Sylvain’s smile had a bit vanished though he was showing it, and winking at him.

He had searched it but Glenn could only remember how protective Felix had been toward threatening.

Obviously.

“No,” he said again. “I don’t know if we even have _done things_.”

“You probably would _know_ it if you did. But that’s fine. Love isn’t about this… not always, certainly not all the time.” Sylvain watched him. “I don’t know about you, for sure, but for me… love it’s… When Fe’ is there, everything is simpler. Talking, about anything or my problems; being happy… I would do everything for him. Absolutely everything. What is impossible would become possible if that could make him happy. I think about him first and me then… Like for Sreng… Of course, I would love to bring him with me and being with him every second. But he would be happier here… That’s why I won’t even talk about it to him. Because he would say yes, even if that hurt him, for me… Because I need him.”

“And if I talk about it to him?” Glenn asked.

“I don’t know,” Sylvain whispered. “I can’t hurt him. He is the one I want to never ever hurt… Not a second. I hate every argument, I hate his sadness… Not his anger because he is kinda sexy.”

“Take care, it is still my brother,” the Knight said. He laid next to him, pressing his skull on the pillow. “Do you think it can work?”

“For you or for me?” Sylvain asked.

“You? Me? Uh… both.”

“The easy first: it is already working with Felix. Usually, making compromise is easy. This time it is harder. If you weren’t there…”

“That’s not nice!” Glenn smirked. “I understand,” he added. “I want to say to you I will step back but Dimitri needs to sort his ideas and perhaps he will be our Hope. I believe in him. He just needs time…”

“See,” Sylvain said. “When you talk about him, there is something in your eyes. Something you don’t have with us. Not even with Fe’…”

Glenn got up, closing the coat around him again.

“Once again, Sylvain, I’m really proud of you. Thank you,” he said. “And take care of yourself. And my brother.”

“You mean I fully got your approbation?” Sylvain asked, seeing him stepping outside his room.

“Yes!”

“Two on two… I must be neat!”

“You’re awesome!” Glenn replied, closing the door.

Sylvain couldn’t help smile and lied back. He took Felix’s pillow and pushed his face in it.

This time, Glenn had no problem to find back the room where he was sleeping. Perhaps it was a good point? Or it was just because his mind was incessantly buzzing.

He went to the door of Dimitri’s room, pushing it open after a single knock.

As he entered the room, the Prince sat in the bed. He was clearly waiting for you.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes. And you?”

“If you’re alright, me too.”

“I’m sorry you had to wait for me?”

“It’s fine. I was about to join but you said ‘Felix’ and so…”

Glenn approached him. He sat next to him and pressed his lips against his, his fingers caressing his cheek.

“Felix wasn’t there, but I talked with Sylvain.”

Dimitri slid his fingers in the long dark blue hair, smiling. He was glad everything seemed to come back like before. He still wanted to kill Edelgard and certainly would need to stay here more until he could take good advices from his Advisor but Glenn was there and he was bringing happiness around.

Not surprising.

“You’re so beautiful…”

Glenn pressed their forehead together.

Every sign was flashing in his mind now. He wondered how he could have been so blind, oblivious…

Perhaps he just didn’t want to admit it until he realized how beautiful love could be. He hadn’t seen a lot of people in love. Just War.

But now…

“I love you, my little Lion.”

Dimitri blinked.

But there was no Ghosts in the room, no fake Glenn, no imposter. Just his Glenn… and he was his Dimitri…


End file.
